This past weekend at Mobile World Congress, a group called Seamless Air Alliance, announced its ambitious plans to include fast 5G or broadband-level internet connections to the skies. Led by Delta, Spring and Gogo, they want to make it easier to setup when connecting to the internet after boarding the plane, among other things.
The Seamless Air Alliance isn’t proposing any kind of radical revamp of how the skies operate right now in terms of planes with faster internet. Rather, they want to us satellites to allow airline passengers to use fast connections and access the Internet. Satellite company OneWeb and carrier Airtel are part of the alliance it seems.
According to The Wall Street Journal, in addition to bringing faster internet tot he skies, the group wants to do away with the process involved with getting connected to the internet on a plane almost completely. Instead, the alliance is proposing a scenario where passengers would not have to enter their credit card information or use an authenticate a device before using internet on an airline.
OneWeb founder Greg Wyler told WSJ that the alliance wants to develop “uniform hardware and operating standards” for airlines. This change would not only make it easier for passengers to access the Internet, but also lower the cost of the access across the board.
The report says that the idea is “still in its early stages.” Right now though, increased competition between airlines and in-flight Internet companies has brought faster speeds and access costs down. When this technology will be introduced in airlines is anyone’s guess.
