My chat with OnAir CEO Benoit Debains wasn't all about that Airbus offerability issue. Indeed, we talked a lot about what OnAir is doing these days (essentially, the Airbus/SITA joint venture is cooking with gas).
So here is a list of key quotes and info from that conversation:
OnAir, which is supported by Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband aeronautical service, now has 21 commercial customers plus five or six VIP private customers.
By the end of the year, the company should have close to 80 aircraft equipped with its in-flight mobile connectivity services and expects to reach 100,000 flights.
At present, OnAir's GSM and GPRS solution is only flying on narrowbodies (Ryanair is a big fan). However, OnAir recently inked a couple of important deals with Hong Kong and Egyptair for equipage on Airbus A330s, indicating that OnAir is getting stronger in the long-haul market with its GSM, GPRS and Internet services (that's a space that rival AeroMobile has been focused on). Stay tuned to this space for a status update on Qantas' equipage of OnAir Internet on its A380s. The carrier currently offers OnAir's basic webchat and webemail to passengers.
OnAir's latest customers "are for the long-range market, and I'm considering that very soon we will announce more deals", reveals Debains.
on July 15, 2009 5:50 PM | Reply
WHat will happen when Ku is installed on multiple aircraft? Will OnAir operate their mobile phone service over Ku or L-Band?
on July 15, 2009 5:59 PM | Reply
GSM/GPRS services can be operated over Ku. Both of the current providers will be able to use whichever bearer system is onboard (think eXphone)
on July 16, 2009 6:06 PM | Reply
Dont think Airbus/OnAir beleive in Ku especially after investing so much in OnAir DP status with Inmarsat. The problem is that the only way to browse the Internet globally on an aircraft is with Ku. I am sure the Inmarsat guys will say you can with L-Band but at what cost with a typical web page being the order of 300KBytes (and forecast to increase) and cost per MByte on L-Band being $$'s per Mbyte so three pages and you've burned a MByte. VPN session and microsoft exchange forget it over L-Band you would have to change to download headers only otherwise I think you will be getting little change from $50 just for that session. Long live competition hopefully Ku being resurrected will see Inmarsat dropping their prices or maybe not?