North American Network Operators Group
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Re: Boeing's Connexion announcement

  • From: Patrick W. Gilmore
  • Date: Sat Oct 14 12:48:50 2006 
On Oct 14, 2006, at 2:13 AM, Roland Dobbins wrote:

On Oct 13, 2006, at 1:52 PM, Rodney Joffe wrote:
Maybe the Connexion folks on the list could tell us what is needed to make it work on the network side - I'm sure we have enough resources between us to handle that. And there are a number of aircraft that already have the equipment...
The biggest obstacles to success for a service of this type are a) high cost and b) the lack of AC power throughout most commercial airliners. Some folks are willing to put up with a), but not for just a couple of hours due to b).

Until AC power is prevalent throughout the cabins of commercial airliners, it's unclear whether such a service will attract sufficient subscribers to become economically viable, IMHO.
I disagree.

Seat power is ubiquitous on some airlines (e.g. American), and available in all but coach on others (e.g. Virgin, Luftansa). It's useful and requested enough that Virgin actually uses it as a reason to fly "premium economy" (or whatever they call it).

iGo's & their cousins are available at every major airport, as well as most electronics & computer shops, and sell millions upon millions per year.

Add to that laptops with 5 & 7 hour life spans becoming more common, and even seat power is not as necessary.

AC power is not required. Bigger seats might be. :)

--
TTFN,
patrick

P.S. I used it for > 4 hours on Luftansa in coach, without seat power. And would happily pay $27.95, perhaps more, to use it again.