In-flight Telephony

Written by Aviation Advocacy on 8 May 2007. Posted in TWTWTW

Mobile phones, internet surfing and Blackberries on-board: The story so far. America lays claim to the invention of the telephone, but it is Europe that leads in mobile telephony. That looks likely to stay the case in the case of telephones on board aircraft too. Last week, the US Federal Communications Commission halted an investigation that would have lifted the ban on the use of mobile telephones in flight, citing the risk of interference with ground networks. On the other side of the Atlantic, in December of last year the European Electronic Communications Committee (ECC) approved the use of mobile phones inside aircraft, provided that there was an on-board base station (called a pico-cell), a ‘network control unit’ filtering out any signal from base stations on the ground, and a means of ensuring that the system did not commence operations until the aircraft was 3,000 metres above the ground. So who is right? In the short term, at least in political terms, the answer could well be that they both are. In the longer term, the answer is less clear cut, and may depend on passenger take up of the services. The studies conducted in Europe, on which the ECC decision is based, assumed GSM technology and the use of satellite capacity to move the signal between the ground and the aircraft. The FCC decision needs to be understood in the context of an auction of spectrum dedicated to the carriage of air to ground traffic that they conducted in 2006 which cost AirCell $36M and JetBlue $20M. AirCell is offering a wireless LAN in-cabin solution that then beams directly to transmitters on the ground. JetBlue is looking to offer live TV with its spectrum, again directly from the ground to the aircraft. The FCC decision offers the concessionaires a window to exploit their existing offerings without competition from satellite linked mobile services (that would use different, internationally allocated, spectrum). The distinction between direct to the ground and via satellite links is an important one, as is the distinction between voice and internet data access. Internet surfing capability, as well as TV services are very capacity hungry and call for a very big ‘pipe’ between the aircraft and the ground. In the US, the dedicated air to ground spectrum, in the 800 mHz band, allows that sort of capacity to be transmitted. In Europe, and this week in Australia, a number of trials of mobile telephone services, via satellite link, have been announced. This week Qantas started a trial service (which ‘in the interests of customer comfort’ excluded the use of voice calls, whilst allowing SMS and GPRS services such as Blackberries and so forth). Air France, Bmi, Ryan Air, Emirates and TAP have also announced trials of telephone services. RyanAir has made clear that it intends allowing voice calls. All of these trials use what can be called the ‘European’ technical and regulatory approach. One of the big issues that the trials will address are the social issues; the concern of fellow travellers of having passengers talking on the phone in flight. That will not be an issue in the US, but might be in Europe. RyanAir has dismissed the concern, arguing that their flights are ‘cheap and cheerful’ anyway. Qantas is prohibiting voice calls. Voice calls continue to be a major part of a mobile telephone operator’s revenue, so whether the service can economically survive without voice generated revenue is an interesting question. For LCCs looking to find additional revenue wherever it might be, it is unlikely that many will take Qantas’ line. Mr O’Leary’s view that nobody flies RyanAir for the relaxation is likely to prove correct. Again, time will tell. Aeromobile and OnAir (as well as their customer airlines) are also banking that for short haul flights, telephone service is more attractive than wireless computer access. That passengers on short haul flights feel that surfing the internet is too time consuming, complex and difficult in the limited personal area than making a quick call, or sending an SMS. Again, in the US, AirCell is punting that surfing will sustain their investment. JetBlue is banking on airline passengers wanting to watch TV. JetBlue is also understood to be looking for other customers for its in-flight TV system. The European approach, of a GSM based service, the capacity requirements of which can be delivered by the existing satellite infrastructure – both the new suppliers of these services, Aeromobile (a JV between ARINC and Telenor) and OnAir (a JV between SITA and Airbus) are using the Inmarsat satellite constellations – create a new country in the sky, with roaming relationships with all the existing mobile operators, so that the cost of a call is like any other international call made from a mobile phone, and is billed that way too. All calls made will be billed as part of a subscriber’s regular phone bill, not via a separate credit card or other transaction. Aeromobile and OnAir are banking that this convenience will make the service attractive. So are the airlines that are keen to get the equipment installed on their aircraft. The airlines are banking on a share of the revenue generated by calls made on-board. It is this stream of revenue that is of attraction to the LCCs in particular. Whilst full service carriers such as Qantas might take a view that only business like applications such as blackberries (as well as SMS services) LCCs are interested in the additional revenue that voice calls (with their bigger margins) can generate. In the short term, first entry airlines are probably getting the equipment supplied for free. Whether Aeromobile and OnAir will continue to be that generous remains to be seen. If not, as seems likely, the revenue from voice calls might become even more relevant. The issue of interference with the on-board systems, the official reason that mobile phone use is banned is not on the agenda. The systems installed on the aircraft are certified; extensive testing has shown that these systems, by allowing phones to operate at very low power, are in fact less problematic than phones attempting to connect with ground base stations at full power. Unlike the TV and wireless data systems in the US, the European systems have to be installed in a complex licensing framework. Mobile telephones require access to licensed spectrum. The solution our firm, Aviation Advocacy, developed and delivered required a Europe wide agreement for mutual recognition of the licences issued for the use of the mobile spectrum by the state of registration of the aircraft, irrespective of where within Europe that aircraft was currently located. This was a major breakthrough, albeit that it was consistent with the terms of the Chicago Convention. It is generally recognised that passengers require increasing and unending connectivity. The first of the putative suppliers in this area, Connexion by Boeing bet on supplying internet access, but did so over satellite links at a frequency band not previously licensed for communications from aircraft and therefore requiring a very complex and expensive regulatory framework to be put in place. Connexion also had to enter into long term, costly, leasing agreements for satellite capacity. The new suppliers have each, in their own way, found simple regulatory frameworks and been able to match the capacity demands to a suitable delivery mechanism. . Going forward, the big issue is which use will be the one that the passengers want most: will it be internet surfing, in which case the European model will need considerable adapting, or will it be mobile phone, SMS and blackberry usage? If that is the case, the FCC might have to look again at the European study that concluded that it is possible to find ways to operate mobile telephones without causing interference.

The Aviation Advocacy Blog

Search

Categories

Month of Issue

In-flight Telephony

Previous Posts

That Was The Blog That Was

Truth in Advertising

That Was The Week That Was 27 November-December 1st

Subscribe to receive notifications of new posts

Categories

Archive

Links

Feed