The cone of silence is well and truly in play at Qantas as it builds up the number of mobile phone enabled jets in advance of launching in-flight connectivity for the non voice use of smart phones like Blackberrys and iPhones on domestic routes.
Sometime in the near future Qantas will have enough of these jets equipped with the necessary equipment to connect smart phones to mobile phone networks via satellites to ‘go live’ on a large scale.
The service, using technology developed by UK firm Aeromobile, was due to have launched by late last year.
It was successfully trialed over ten months up to January last year on a Cityflyer 767, which established its reliability, guaged passenger acceptance, and confirmed that it did not pose a threat of electromagnetic interference with the jet’s flight systems.
The cautious build up at Qantas is understandable. In-flight telephones that were installed by other carriers in the 90’s were a costly flop. The Connexion by Boeing broadband satellite internet service launched by carriers like Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa earlier this decade proved to have been based on a flawed business model. Connexion was also severely impacted by the advent of live-television-anywhere technology, that resulted in much higher bandwidth consumption by those who used it than had ever been contemplated by the architects of in-flight internet. It was simply impossible for the airlines or Boeing to make money out of Connexion.
When Qantas does switch on the initial in-flight mobile network, for email and text users on the major Cityflyer routes and across the Tasman, it will reveal the fees, set in conjunction with the mobile call service providers who will be sharing in the hoped for bonanza.
A similar service is intended for early use on the V Australia flights between Sydney and Los Angeles from late next month, and can already be found on a growing number of carriers in the US and Europe and many long haul routes flown by Virgin Atlantic and Emirates.
The really good news is that ‘phone rage’ is unlikely to become another source of ‘air rage’ since Qantas, and most other similarly equipped carriers, do not allow voice calls.
Will the new service allow broadband like speeds that would in turn make internet access on a mobile less glacial than it usually is on the ground? Not yet.
But it will be important when it does if you are flying in a jet that permits you to connect via a USB cable to a larger seat back video monitor. That way you will be able to surf the net (and on some mobile plans, go broke) using your iPhone as the IFE control unit and the seat back video as a screen that will save your eyesight but not your wallet. Singapore Airlines and Emirates already allow you to go big screen with your iPod or iPhone in their newest cabins and in all classes.
However long haul connectivity is proving a more difficult beast to tame than the domestic email and text messaging service coming ’soon’ to the Cityflyers.
And the serious contraction in the ranks of frequent inter city flyers as the financial crisis deepens may yet see the hoped for earnings from providing this service fail to reach initial expectations.
