Boeing Connexion announce in-flight broadband access

Posted by Simon Perry on 14 June 2002 at 1:12 pm | Tagged as: Distribution

Boeing Connexion announced a three month trial starting in February 2003 with British Airways to provide the non-coach class passengers with Internet access directly from their own laptops and the ability to what streamed video and live TV in their seats. The service to the plane can receive at up to 20Mb/s and transmit at 1Mb/s but this is clearly shared with everyone on-board. It is thought that the charge for the service will be around £20 per flight.

Boeing are throwing a lot behind this service, having recently gained the first FAA certificate for such a service, this long-vaunted idea makes a lot of sense to Boeing as they build/own satellites as well as aircraft. They also made a feature of the service on May 23rd when the visitors to Boeings’ annual investors conference witnessed a live video-conference between Boeing President Scott Carson and System Development Director Ed Laase, while Lasse was speeding through the sky separated horizontally by 1,000 miles, vertically by seven miles.