Home › Travel

Air Travel

FCC to Auction Spectrum for In-Flight Wireless Internet, VoIP

Authored by dmw on May 12, 2006 - 12:29pm.
New York - The FCC plans to auction frequencies that will be used to provide in-flight Internet services, The New York Times reported. Some foreign airlines, including Lufthansa and Japan Airlines, already offer flights with broadband for laptop-toting passengers, through a satellite-based service called Connexion from Boeing. Verizon Airfone, AirCell and LiveTV are among nine companies expected to bid on two available licenses, The Times reported, for spectrum borrowed from the seldom-used in-flight phone services available on many planes. The FCC licenses would allow equipment on planes to connect directly with receivers on the ground, with passengers paying a flat fee to both connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi, and potentially place phone calls using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. "Airlines will have to be careful how they roll it out," Jonathan Schildkraut, a telecommunications analyst at Jefferies & Company, told The Times. "I don't trust people to observe the laws of propriety," he added, referring to the prospect of passengers being allowed to talk on the phone in an airplane's cramped quarters.
tags: Law | Tech | WiFi | Travel | VOIP | Regulation | In-Flight | FCC | Airlines | Air Travel |