Interview: OnAir CEO George Cooper
This week, we spoke by email with George Cooper, the CEO of OnAir, a new company that's aiming to provide a wide range of in-flight communications services for travelers. Following is the interview.
Wireless Weblog: Tell me about the history of OnAir: what led to the company's founding, and how has it developed in the year or so since its launch?
George Cooper: OnAir is a joint venture with SITA and Airbus that was incorporated at the beginning of February 2005. The company's vision is to meet the personal communications expectations of the traveler in the aircraft cabin, and has been since the concept was first considered several years ago.
Since the launch of the company last year, OnAir has announced suppliers for the entire on-board mobile phone solution, including Airbus, to Thales, Siemens, Inmarsat, Miltope and TriaGnoSys. More importantly, two launch customers have been announced: bmi and TAP Portugal. We are planning announcements about two more major airlines, but do not have the details yet.
OnAir has also been working with the telecommunications regulators, in particular in Europe, to ensure that the solution is properly regulated.
Wireless Weblog: What's the range of services that OnAir is making available?
George Cooper: Basically, OnAir will enable passengers to communicate in the air as they do on the ground. From the end of 2006, people will be able to use their mobile phones, PDAs and BlackBerrys during flights, based on GSM and GPRS. It will be just like international roaming – once the plane reaches cruising altitude (10,000ft), passengers will turn their phones on and then be able to use it, in exactly the same way as traveling abroad. And they will be charged at international roaming rates, with the billing coming through their home mobile operator.
From the second quarter of 2007, passengers will have access to the Internet, corporate VPN, webmail and webchat. They will be able to use either their own laptops or the seat-back screens.
Wireless Weblog: What's the technology behind the enabling of these services?
George Cooper: For the mobile phone solution, the technology is based around a pico cell, which is basically a mini base-station on board the aircraft. The mobile phone signal is picked up by a leaky cable (and that is a technical term…) that runs along the length of the cabin, in the ceiling. The leaky cable takes the signal to the pico cell, and from there it is converted and sent to a satellite, and from there to the ground network. OnAir will use the Inmarsat I4 satellites, which will soon be ready for aero use.
Wireless Weblog: What are your expectations for your services and deployments in 2006?
George Cooper: OnAir's GSM and GPRS service will become available in 2006. It will be available first in Western Europe, then in the Middle East and Asia. OnAir is not currently targeting North America because that market is different from the rest of the world, for two main reasons. The first is that the predominant standard is CDMA, and the second is that the solution in North America will be based around direct air to ground communications. OnAir's solution is based on GSM because the majority of mobile phone users across the world use GSM; and it is based on satellite communications because, for most of the world, flights involve crossing a number of countries, and they are not always over land.
Wireless Weblog: How are pricing and billing structured for these services?
George Cooper: For the GSM and GPRS service, passengers will be billed through their home operators, at a similar level to international roaming rates. The billing structure for the internet solution is under development.
Wireless Weblog: How do you allay airlines' and customers' concerns regarding the safety of wireless usage in-flight?
George Cooper: OnAir is developing new technology that will allow the safe use of mobile devices during flights. OnAir's solution uses satellite connectivity to manage passengers' calls, routing calls from a mini base-station on the aircraft, called a pico cell, to a satellite and from there to the ground network. This routing of communications through satellites is based on a system that commercial aircraft crew have been using for decades.
OnAir's technology will ensure that there will be no interference with the aircraft's systems, nor with ground telecommunications networks. It does so in two ways:
(1) The solution is designed such that mobile devices will transmit only at the lowest electronic emission levels. A cable running the length of the cabin acts as an antenna, collecting signals from the mobile devices and taking them to the on board pico cell. Since the cable is only a few feet from the passenger's mobile phone, minimum emission power is required, which in turn negates potential interference with the plane or the ground network.
2) As a further control, on-board control equipment will manage the signals to prevent any interference with either the plane or ground networks. It does so by ensuring that mobile devices use only the correct channel during flights.
The OnAir system is currently undergoing rigorous testing as part of the certification process being carried out by Airbus, the leading aircraft manufacturer and certification body. The OnAir solution is also obtaining approval from relevant telecommunications regulatory authorities before its entry into service. Finally, no airline will install equipment that does not carry all the appropriate safety approvals.
Wireless Weblog: Beyond the short term, what are OnAir's plans for the future of in-flight services?
George Cooper: OnAir is developing a solution that is based on mainstream technology and that meets the needs of travellers. It is not about technology for technology's sake. The overarching aim is to allow passengers to communicate in the air, in the same way that they can on the ground. In the future, that may well involve new technologies, such as 3G, but right now the focus is on getting the solution flying.