{"id":51568,"date":"2024-03-29T18:46:55","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T10:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/ifc-providers-balance-cost-and-capabilities-to-provide-the-at-home-experience-in-the-air\/"},"modified":"2024-03-29T18:46:55","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T10:46:55","slug":"ifc-providers-balance-cost-and-capabilities-to-provide-the-at-home-experience-in-the-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/ifc-providers-balance-cost-and-capabilities-to-provide-the-at-home-experience-in-the-air\/","title":{"rendered":"IFC Providers Balance Cost and Capabilities to Provide the \u2018At Home\u2019 Experience in the Air"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

In-flight connectivity (IFC) developers are working to balance cost with capabilities while offering an in-flight internet experience to match what is available at a consumer\u2019s home. A panel of experts from Intelsat<\/strong>, Gogo Business Aviation<\/strong>, Viasat<\/strong>, Hughes Network Systems<\/strong>, Anuvu<\/strong>, and Gilat Satellite Networks<\/strong> took stock of evolving IFC expectations this month at SATELLITE 2024.<\/p>\n

The panel generally agreed that the true at-home internet experience is now possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s here. It\u2019s a reliable service,\u201d said Reza Rasoulian, vice president of Hughes. \u201cIt\u2019s not one band versus another one versus another. When you bring all of this together in a cohesive solution, we are able to deliver an exceptional experience. I think some players have been better than others over time, but it\u2019s time to really create a living [room] experience in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

Viasat Aviation CCO Meherwan Polad described the expectation of an internet at-home experience in the air. \u201cIt means the ability to do all the things you\u2019re used to at home, which is using your business applications, browsing the web, doing all the streaming you want from all your favorite streaming providers,\u201d Polad said. \u201cBut digging a little bit deeper, it means being able to do those things anytime, anywhere, regardless of what time of day and regardless of where you\u2019re flying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Bijur, senior vice president of Commercial Aviation for Intelsat, said new solutions that are coming online take time to implement. It takes time to change out solutions that have been on airplanes for the past 15 years. He highlighted the reduction in latency, or the time it takes to get a packet of data to and from the airplane, with Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Intelsat partners with Eutelsat OneWeb for aviation connectivity, and also signed a LEO capacity expansion deal during SATELLITE.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a significant enhancement available on the LEO network when it comes to basic applications,\u201d Bijur said. \u201cI\u2019m not talking just voice and video. I\u2019m talking basic collaboration tools that are functioning much better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rasoulian mentioned technology improvements Hughes has pursued to create a \u201cfrictionless experience for every flight every single time every single minute.\u201d Hughes landed its first direct-to-airline IFC deal with Delta Air Lines last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way we\u2019re doing that was a lot of automation in the backend that actually extends the health of the network to be able to provide that experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Technology is coming along, but not as fast as some would hope. \u201cThe challenge that we have in aviation is that it just takes time with new technology and aircrafts,\u201d said Amir Yafe, vice president of Mobility and Global Accounts for Gilat Satellite Networks. \u201cThe rollout of services is just a gradual process. It\u2019s not as quick as at-home. It just takes more time because of the regulations, because of the safety of flights, and other concerns that need to be addressed first.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Read more: Flat Panel Antennas Put Volume Back on the Menu in IFC]  <\/em><\/p>\n

There is a sense that IFC providers are a getting a better education in providing services and balancing that with customer demands, Yafe said. \u201cWe\u2019re getting more and more educated now. I think at the end airlines need to balance how much they want to go into the technology,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was a lot of discussions on multi orbits and multi bands. But they don\u2019t focus on money. Most things cost a lot of money to put on an aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n

One issue that is still up for debate is the business model of IFC. Should in-flight internet be a revenue generator?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an airline by airline matter,\u201d Bijur said. \u201cBags fly free at Southwest Airlines. That\u2019s a marketing ploy. That\u2019s not because they know something we don\u2019t. It\u2019s a choice I think that everyone can make as to how they\u2019re going to make the value proposition that the customer enjoys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bijur said it\u2019s up to airlines how they structure it, whether to charge for it separately or make up the cost in the ticket price.<\/p>\n

The cost of the in-flight service for aviation represents a very small fraction of the cost to own, operate and maintain the aircraft, argued Gustavo Nader, chief strategy officer for Gogo Business Aviation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is the expectation that service evolves over time as user expectations increase,\u201d Nader said. \u201cEverything we have built and developed around the platform economy is designed for the future, and allows the upgrade and the evolution of the connectivity solutions to that aircraft, so that the user has the ability to always have access to the most effective broadband capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The industry needs to work towards proving it can create the reliability and scale needed for in-flight connectivity, Rasoulian said. \u201cWe need to create this reliable, fault-tolerant ecosystem. That\u2019s trial and error. Systems consistency is the name of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In-flight connectivity (IFC) developers are working to balance cost with capabilities while offering an in-flight internet experience to match what is available at a consumer\u2019s home. A panel of experts from Intelsat, Gogo Business Aviation, Viasat, Hughes Network Systems, Anuvu, and Gilat Satellite Networks took stock of evolving IFC expectations this month at SATELLITE 2024. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}