CAA welcomes in-flight broadband

Local airline Mango and Internet service provider WirelessG are set to introduce in-flight Internet access for the first time in Africa.

With a positive response from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), local airlines will soon be able to offer Internet use in-flight.

“I have had a meeting with the aviation authorities. They are very positive and see this as a new opportunity for SA's airline industry and telecommunications industry,” says WirelessG CEO Carel van der Merwe.

Now the company needs to follow the correct procedures and get the equipment approved by the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).

The CAA welcomed WirelessG's application for the installation approval of the Supplemental Type Certificates on South African aircrafts in a letter to WirelessG. In light of this, Van der Merwe expects to have the first live installed aircraft at the end of April.

“We have to have room for testing in SA after we submit to the FAA. Then, after we are approved by the CAA, we will go live. The first commercial ones will be ready mid-year and the POC [proof-of-concept] aircraft will be ready [by the] end of April or beginning of May.”

Van der Merwe says other airlines will soon follow in Mango's footsteps.

“We have already received indication from more than one airline that they are definitely interested. We are in negotiation with them, but it will take a while for their aircraft models to be approved.”

He says this technology makes Africa more accessible since it is not limited only to SA or Africa alone, and tourists and foreign journalists can use it to access the continent.

“We use the Vodacom Business Solutions satellite and get sub-Saharan coverage. So it's not limited to SA and can go international as well. When it goes international, we hand over to international satellites.”

Van der Merwe says the installation costs depend on the size of the fleet. He estimates R3 to R4 per seat, but this is only for hardware. It excludes marketing, broadband and satellite costs. Mango won't pay for bandwidth, but will bear the cost of the hardware and installation.

“We plan to roughly charge 50c to 80c per megabyte. It depends what Mango wants and they have indicated not more than R1,” he says.

The service, Fli G-Connect, will function like the company's countrywide Internet hotspots, and passengers will be given access for a fee. G-connect customers will be able to use their accounts on board.

It is essentially a wireless hotspot service and has been tested on international carriers like Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines, and will offer its services later this year on Norwegian Air Shuttle.

WirelessG says that unlike cellular services, the technology will not interfere with the critical technology functions of an airplane.