Good God almighty, it seems I mixed up my FCC filings the other day (I can't imagine how that happened. That site is a walk in the park). But I digress. Here is the appropriate filing - you'll see it has a rather similar thrust to the 2008 document.
But much more importantly, here is the link to Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines' 1 July 2009 - yes, 2009 - request to the FCC to approve Row 44's application.
Three key quotes:
"...competing airlines are moving forward with their own in-flight broadband services, and Southwest and Alaska Airlines need to move forward promptly with their own in-flight broadband offerings."
"ViaSat, a competing satellite provider that has been unable to gain a contract with any of the major airlines, has been doing everything it can to slow down or stop approval of Row 44's system, but the commission should not reward these anti-competitive efforts by further delaying a grant of Row 44's application."
"...Southwest and Alaska Airlines urge that the commission should move expeditiously to a grant of this application."
Though they don't come right out and say it, Alaska and Southwest clearly see that they will be at a competitive disadvantage if they can't go fleet-wide with Row 44 in the near-term. Here's hoping this whole mess is resolved soon.
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