It's the Broadband Age for Business Aircraft

 By Fred George

January 12, 2010

Boot up your laptop computer in the cabin of some late model business aircraft and you may find you can connect with company headquarters and the outside world as easily as in your own office on the ground. That's because there now are available a number of ground-to-airplane and satellite-to-airplane high-speed data communications links for business aircraft.

Less than five years ago, business aircraft travelers still were hamstrung by 2.4 to 64 Kbps data transmission speeds that hailed back to the days of rubber-eared telephone handset modems introduced decades ago. Such speeds sufficed when most written business communications consisted of simple telex-like text files, not unlike SMS text messages in today's wireless world.

Today, though, business aircraft travelers expect much higher connection speeds. Even so, some providers of slow-speed connectivity services for business aircraft, such as firms that use Iridium as a data link, continue to promote the capabilities of their systems. Some even question the need for broadband communications in aircraft cabins.

However, a study conducted jointly by Forbes magazine and Google in June 2009 named "The Rise of the Digital C-Suite: How Executives Locate and Filter Business Information" helps to shed light on how top management uses the Internet today.

About three-quarters of all senior executives surveyed for the Forbes/Google report said that Internet access is "very valuable" as the most important information resource, ranking above contacts at work, outside work contacts, general interest and business trade publications, and personal networking.

Eight of 10 senior executives under 50 years old said they use the Internet to gather business intelligence on a daily basis. The reliance on the Internet doesn't drop off steeply as the age of the executive increases. Indeed, six of 10 key employees 62 years and older use the Internet for business purposes every day. Moreover, 83 percent of 40- to 49-year-old executives almost three of four executives between 50 and 59 and half of those over 60 use the Internet three or more times per day to glean business intelligence. Seven of 10 said they prefer using the Internet as an information source rather than depending upon print media.

A majority of these executives do such online information gathering or exchanging on their own. They don't delegate it to staff. Making use of search engines, banking and bill paying, e-commerce and reading product/service reviews, along with Webmail, instant messaging, searching city guides and obtaining medical information are among the most frequently used online resources.

Notably, Internet access is the number one use for PDAs after voice communications. Having access to the Web even ranks slightly higher as a priority than being able to use e-mail on one's PDA, according to Crowd Science, a demographics research firm based in Mountain View, Calif.

By inference, the Forbes study also suggests how business aircraft passengers would use the Internet if broadband were available in the main cabin. At present, there are three main broadband connectivity service providers for business aircraft, each requiring different avionics equipment and each offering different connection speeds, coverage areas and price plans.

Qualcomm's 3G CDMA Evolution-Data Only (EV-DO) technology that makes possible live streaming video on your Sprint or Verizon cell phone also has an aviation application. In 2006, Aircell won an FCC auction that awarded a license to provide virtually the same EV-DO service to airborne customers in the continental United States as is available to cell phone, laptop and PDA users on the surface. Similar to 3G on the ground, data transfer rates of up to 3.1 Mbps in the air are possible when using Aircell's air-to-ground high-speed Internet service. The actual speed depends upon aircraft location, line-of-sight signal path, atmospheric conditions and number of users on the system, among other factors.

READ MORE:    Aviationweek.com