November 29, 2011 – Inmarsat (LSE:ISAT.L), the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services, today announced the selection of Gogo as its partner to bring Inmarsat’s Global Xpress™ satellite service to the commercial airline market. Gogo will be a service provider, distributing Global Xpress service to the global commercial aviation market. Inmarsat has also selected Gogo’s business aviation subsidiary, Aircell, as a distribution partner for the business and government aviation markets.

“With Gogo onboard as a service provider, we’ve rounded out our team to deliver Global Xpress to the commercial aviation market, starting in 2013,” said Leo Mondale, Managing Director of Inmarsat GX. “The superior performance and economics of Global Xpress versus any other satellite solution in the aviation marketplace uniquely position us to support passenger connectivity across commercial and business aviation markets, on a sustainable basis. The combination of the Inmarsat Ka- and L-band satellite technologies with Gogo’s air-to-ground service will support adoption of superior connectivity solutions across entire airline fleets in a way that really makes sense. We see a major commercial opportunity for Global Xpress in aviation services, which will in turn support the future growth of Inmarsat.”

Working with Inmarsat, Gogo will begin in-flight testing of the Global Xpress aeronautical services after the launch of the first Inmarsat-5 satellite, which is scheduled for mid-2013. Gogo plans to offer regional service in 2013 with services for air transport, business aviation and government customers expected worldwide later in 2014.

Inmarsat’s Global Xpress service will allow Gogo to utilize the first global Ka-band solution, which is expected to bring significantly improved performance to the global aero market in terms of coverage, capacity and cost. With expected transmission speeds up to 50 megabits per second, Global Xpress will power a solution that provides a high-performing satellite experience for passengers and airlines alike.

“We believe that this is truly a game changer for our industry in that it’s the first scalable global solution in the market. Inmarsat has assembled an incredible team and we are highly confident in the execution plan we’ve put in place,” said Michael Small, Gogo’s president and CEO. “One of our goals is to be able to provide technology solutions that enable us to service the full-fleet needs of our current and future airline partners; regardless of aircraft size or mission. By partnering with Inmarsat, we are able to add an important piece to our technology puzzle.”

“Gogo is a leader in in-flight connectivity in terms of installing aircraft, managing bandwidth and driving customer adoption,” added Mondale. “We are excited to work with Gogo and all of our partners to bring Global Xpress to the aero market.”

Gogo and its subsidiary, Aircell, will also be appointed as a SwiftBroadband distribution partner for the aeronautical markets.

Gogo is a leading provider of in-air global satellite connectivity solutions for business aviation through Aircell, with more than 5,000 aircraft in service. Aircell has already installed equipment that utilizes Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband solution for global connectivity service on more than 100 business aircraft.

“The Little Blue Pill For Your PIPE”
It is not the size but the way you use it.

Last time in “Why Size Doesn’t Matter” I outlined the specific issues limiting timely connectivity communication due to satcom latency. Today, lets talk about some fixes, to make the most out of your pipe.

In a world guided by the laws of physics you may feel a little trapped by the inevitable lack of comparable Internet service when flying over the pacific at 600mph, but I have good news. The Internet is a complex place filled with a lot more than just streaming media.

The Internet world is really broken into two broad categories that have evolved sequentially in two distinct directions:

1) Communications Centered. 1970-199x
2) Rich Media Content. 199x-Today

For the last 40 years the Internet has grown and moved inevitably towards the “richening” of content from text email and bulletin boards to AJAX and embedded interactive media, but one fact seems to buck this trend, the growth of instant connections and the new “always connected” model. Since 2007 we have seen a steady reversal of the importance of Internet media in a human sense back to raw connectivity. Born out of the collision of convenience, and shrinking Internet devices (Smartphones), the “instant al-ways on” model exploded.

To understand how important the use of this technology is to your inflight connectivity needs, you need to examine both the growth of rich sources, such as, Streaming Video at the same time as growth in Instant Messaging/Broadcasting and Status Updates. A recent study on Internet usage shows the US’s largest single consumer-use of band-width during peak hours is Netflix (15m members) at over 20% (400+ Mb per day per user); whereas, Facebook with over 150 million users in the US market only uses 2%. In fact, 8 of the top 10-bandwidth users are streaming video, accounting for 60% of all traffic on the Internet by volume.

So how to take advantage of the change? Firstly you must offer connectivity, “always on” is just that. Secondly, offer targeting access services… not the pipe. The Internet is not what it used to be and selective access is not only a bandwidth advantage but also a passenger service preposition advantage.

Here is an analysis of usage and SBB (Swift Broadband) costs to clarify the service focus:

• Open Internet access on SBB, limited to a single channel of 400 Kbits/s costs the passenger a maximum of $15-$30* per minute to stream video. (Based on the 50K bytes per second link speed)

• Mobile Facebook access on SBB, costs the passenger a maximum of $0.22-$0.44* per minute. (Based on US figures for mobile access of 24 hours a month @ 16% of 400 MB usage per month)

• Instant Messenger access on SBB, costs the passenger of $.005-$0.01 per minute. (Based on 40 words per minute composition and 5 simultaneous conversations)

In addition, the bandwidth requirements for Mobile Facebook are such that a single channel could supply simultaneous service for over 500 passengers.

Interesting enough, many other services have similar, if not smaller, network profiles but are highly desirable, such as Instant Messaging and Twitter. In time, the market players will move but the new “instant always on” culture has become well entrenched in our lives.

So what is the little blue pill for your air to ground pipe, it is optimizing your Internet offer-ing to selective services that are highly desirable and bandwidth effective, and re-focusing open Internet access as a generally desirable inflight service.

References :
http://www.sandvine.com/downloads/documents/2010%20Global%20Internet%20Phenomena%20Report.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_per_minute

* Based on SBB costing of $5-$10 per megabyte

Let’s start out this week with a new Aircell aeronautical equipment package for Swift Broadband service that’ll roll out at EBACE 2010 in Geneva this week. Two featurers of the new hardware are Thrane & Thrane’s new AVIATOR 200 and a very interesting antenna. Here’s the skinny on the radios for our techno readers: “Thrane & Thrane’s innovative AVIATOR 200 simultaneously provides data speeds up to 200 kbps and a single AMBE 2 channel for voice calls, providing smaller aircraft with a complete airborne communications solution where this was not achievable before. These data and voice services can be accessed via wired or wireless connections built into the AVIATOR 200, alleviating the need for external wired and wireless routers.” The second part of the hardware equation is the new, small, low-gain, blade antenna – still capable of voice and data speeds up to 200 kbps. We have included a picture of the antenna in this issue and it is perfect for bizjets (Weight: 1.5 lbs., Height: 4.57 in., Length: 11 in., Width: 4.25 in.). Here is the full story.

Next, we came across a report on a hot, 37 page, very detailed UBS Financial document. It was reported in an article in the Seattle PI Blogs with the titillating title: “Airlines Have Ordered Too Many Planes”. Within the body, you can read about some 793 aircraft over-ordered by world airlines and 250 that are supposedly under-ordered. If one believes these numbers, the next 9 months ought to be interesting for IFE vendors! This report seems contrary to recent upturned economic indicators and we wondered if smart folks in our industry had the same opinion? We asked a couple of aviation professionals, and got these answers:

“Regarding passenger demand forecasts, GE’s Ian Gurekian at the 2008 SpeedNews Conference said that, generally speaking, industry passenger demand forecast have been wrong.  Most forecasts show a monotonically rising demand slope in the neighborhood of 3-6% over a couple year period. But he demonstrated that this demand slope almost never happens!  The passenger demand slope is highly volatile.  It ranges from a -3% to a positive 13% over periods as short at one year. This is a very bad forecasting environment so it is no wonder that the number of big jets on order is “over sold.” – John Courtright – SIE

“Have airlines over-ordered new aircraft? I suppose that’s possible. But look at what United did recently. They ordered new aircraft at a time when they could leverage the best OEM pricing. And they weren’t just building a bigger fleet–they were purchasing aircraft that fit their revised business model–one that says fly fewer seats to more destinations and keep the planes full. And they ordered aircraft that were more fuel-efficient, and the orders are spread over what appears to be a realistic timeline. And another and–they might just merge with Continental to bring about a more efficient airline. Delta provides another example–they deferred ordering additional aircraft and reinvested in expanding IFE and improving their cabins. These kinds of decisions do not indicate over-ordering.” Michael Childers – Lightstream Communications.

Ultimately, one reader got it right: “The UBS Wealth Management division has open short sales on Boeing and EADS stock.”

Lastly readers, don’t forget the upcoming AIX in Hamburg, Germany on May 18 – 20. We hope to bring you the latest news in IFE from the floor. And just to prove your IFExpress team go to any length to bring you the lowdown on IFE and connectivity, we are flying to Hamburg via Reykjavik on a B757…GULP!

Melbourne Australia 19th February 2010
Ron Chapman CEO of ASiQ Limited announced today that SafeCell will change the rules for in-flight messaging.

Ron stated “When we created SafeCell, the initial App was designed as a low cost Mobile phone platform for corporate jets. Refer ifexpress article

We have now tested our App on every available aircraft satellite network and recently received the latest Inmarsat swift broadband aircraft system.

We activated the SafeCell App on multiple mobile phones and were simultaneously sending SMS, MMS and Voice messages in both directions. As such, we are now confident we could accommodate the messaging requirements of 400+ passengers on a jumbo.

Not only that, unlike existing systems, SafeCell does not incur GSM roaming charges and we see no reason messaging in an aircraft should be more expensive than on the ground and its time someone did something about it.

As such, for the first time in aviation communications history, the price of SafeCell in-flight messaging can actually be cheaper than on the ground. We are talking of providing an SMS service that could be as low as 5 cents per message and MMS for under 25 cents, plus Instant Messaging for free.

We know from our competitor’s flight test on QANTAS and Air France that hundreds of messages are being sent on flights, despite their high roaming charges. We believe that SafeCell’s lower cost will make it affordable for all passengers, not just the business traveller.

The SafeCell App achieves this, as it makes the Bluetooth connection on the mobile the primary link and connects to a Bluetooth hotspot in the aircraft. SafeCell delivers its service via low cost satellites through the Internet, avoiding the GSM roaming charges.

The App makes a Bluetooth dumb phone smart and a smartphone even smarter and as Bluetooth is up to 3 Mbps, speed is not an issue.

We now see SafeCell as a real option for all airlines.”

Later this month ASiQ will release the worlds first certifiable Bluetooth Hotspot