July 3, 2003
(Computerworld)
Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) announced yesterday that it has signed a contract with a division of The Boeing Co. to offer high-speed Internet access on 11 of its wide-body, long-range aircraft, with service installations scheduled to start early next year.
Stockholm-based SAS, which had a memorandum of understanding with Boeing for its Connexion By Boeing service in November, said passengers would be able to access the service through industry-standard 802.11b wireless LANs installed in the cabin.
Boeing provides broadband access to aircraft through a satellite system, offering raw data speeds of 20Mbit/sec. to the aircraft and upload speeds from the planes of 1M to 1.5Mbit/sec. Boeing currently provides the service under experimental licenses in the 14-to-14.5-GHz bands. The International Telecommunication Union, whose month-long World Radiocommunications Conference in Geneva ends tomorrow, is expected to approve use of that spectrum on a global basis, according to Boeing spokesman Terrance Scott.
While Boeing lost its three U.S. airline launch customers -- AMR Corp.'s American Airlines Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc. and UAL Corp.'s United Airlines Inc. -- in the downturn in air travel following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (see story), SAS has remained committed to the service, according to Jens Willumsen, who is responsible for market and product management at the airline.
"The Nordic region is one of the world's most IT-dense areas, and the ability to communicate easily from the air was high on our passengers' list of priorities," Willumsen said in a statement. "This is why we have been working for a long time to achieve a complete solution that meets our customers' demands."
Besides SAS, Boeing has an agreement to equip 88 long-range aircraft operated by the Lufthansa Airlines division of Lufthansa AG (see story). Scott said Lufthansa offers both hard-wired and wireless Internet access on its planes, with the wireless LAN hardware supplied by Cisco Systems Inc.
Scott said SAS hasn't yet selected its wireless LAN supplier.