The Final Frontier: connectivity on a plane, but at a (high) price

I’m sitting on a plane as I’m drafting this post. Tapping away, quite intently on my notebook Laptop, and reasonably content since I am just editing text. However, I do yearn for connectivity in the sky, and that is somewhat the point of this post.

I thought I would outline the services that would be useful to me, categorised from a high-level down to a more detailed fashion. However, before I do, I’ll just let you know about a plan that Ryanair (a budget airline in the UK) has for using the toilet on a plane – they want to charge £1 per use! Is that some kind of Pee-pay?!

Right, back to the topic at hand – what connectivity could I do with on a plane? Well, in simple terms:

·    voice
·    data

If I had then to split that out further:

·    proper mobile-network routed voice calls with a good QoS
·    SMS
·    Web browsing
·    VPN
·    Email

Now at the moment, save for a few trials with different Airline Operators, these services are not widely dispatched – isolated voice calls and texting have been tried, along with some data services. However, the overriding issue at the moment seems to be one of cost. We expect (when on the ground) that most InterWeb access is largely free, or at least if you are paying, then you get a very big bundle of data. Likewise voice calls, within your monthly charges, you can mostly get generous voice minutes on contract.

So in summary, voice and data in your home network are quite cheap. But even the previous bastion of high charges, International Roaming, has been subject to price compression in recent years. These days, you can get a call save package, pay for International texts from your monthly allowance (rather than being charged a premium), or even call at home network rates (well at least you can if you are on H3G!).

So right now I believe the final frontier for “cheap” voice and data access is on planes – and you could argue that within 5 or so years things might change radically. But I don’t think so. Right now there is incredible pressure on Airlines to improve their margins in the face of rising fuel costs, and declining passenger numbers. The Airline Operators’ overwhelming trend has been to outsource or componentize the costs, so in fact most things you would have expected bundled in your ticket cost, actually have to be bought on top.

The result? There is actually an opposite trend as regards price to the customer (it’s increasing!) from Airlines, compared to what the Mobile networks have been doing (which is decreasing costs and bundling).

So will I get my beloved connectivity on a plane? Probably not any time soon (since the CAPEX and OPEX for installing and running these services are high), and when I do, I can expect to be paying substantial charges. How am I ever going to update my Facebook status if I can’t connect?!