Phones in flight.

For the first time in aviation history, the airlines have an opportunity to offer their passengers the communication options and entertainment amenities they have come to expect in their homes, offices, hotels, and even their cars. Within the last year, many new conveniences have began to appear in the airline seat. The best air-to-ground (ATG) systems of today not only provides phone service comparable to any earthbound telephone system, it also offers the air traveler a wide menu of additional choices, such as video games, movies, faxes, computer data jacks, car and hotel reservations, airport layout, connecting gate information and stock quotes, in-flight shopping, even live audio service that will deliver news, sports, music and special event programing, and finally... static-free digital telephone service!

First, some history. The in-flight communication and entertainment revolution of today actually began ten years ago when Jack Goeken installed the first modern air-to-ground passenger telephone. The idea caught on, and sparked a revolution in ATG communications and entertainment services that has produced a brand new industry with a potential value, worldwide, of $2 billion. Now, merely a decade later, airlines around the world are vying with one another to satisfy the communications and entertainment wants of their passengers, hoping to gain market share and generate additional revenues.

While the idea of making phone calls in flight using actual telephones as opposed to radios has been around since the 1930s, no one made a serious attempt to create a commercial market until 1976. It would, however, be a number of years before that company's product was available aloft because of an administrative governmental licensing thicket that had to be conquered first. Goeken left Airfone in 1989 after selling the company to GTE Corp., and immediately began lobbying the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for competition in the air-to-ground industry, arguing that fair and open competition would speed technology and lower the rates to the air-traveling public.

In December, 1990, the FCC issued licenses to six companies, three of whom, In-Flight Phone, GTE Airfone, and Claircom are actively marketing telephone service. Only In-Flight Phone, however, is currently operating a digital system that offers passengers a wide range of communication and entertainment choices beyond telephone service.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AT YOUR AIRLINE SEAT

Unlike the earlier analog telephones digital transmission is immune to static and fading, thus, the call is clear and the voices do not get weak. Many more services can be offered over the same channel. In addition it incorporates noise-cancelling microphone technology that actually senses and then removes annoying cabin background noise to dramatically improve call quality.

From a practical standpoint, digital encoding offers added protection against electronic eavesdroppers, the dangers of which are, as we now know, very real and not at all exaggerated (reportedly, one of the "victims" of this modern ailment was then United States Vice President Quayle aboard Air Force Two.) The magic comes not from a wand, but from a tiny computer chip in the processor unit of each seat. The device changes the voice into "digital packets" that are transmitted by the aircraft's on-board transceiver directly to a ground station, which patches the call into the local telephone lines.

Another method of providing reliable airborne telephone service is to transmit from the aircraft to an orbiting satellite. Some U.S. air-to-ground companies have secured the ability to offer telephony via satellite. They can provide voice and data transmission worldwide through four L-band satellites operated by the International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT), and currently operates such a system on-board Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 aircraft. While the obvious advantage to satellite service is its ability to provide service from all points of the globe, the drawback is the limited channel capacity and the expense (often as high as $10 per minute, while air-to-ground calls cost $2.00 per minute in the United States). In-Flight Phone International is currently championing an integrated system that provides the best of both worlds by utilizing less expensive ground stations when the aircraft is range, automatically switching to satellite service as the aircraft travels beyond a ground station's coverage area, or overseas.

THE TREND TOWARD SERVICES INTEGRATION

In the aircraft cabin, the trend is toward the integration of passenger services. Some systems have been modularly designed with an open system architecture which allows it to interface with high-resolution seatback video displays, or other services and enhancements that will undoubtedly appear in the future.

The FlightLink telephone service is currently the only system that works in tandem with a passenger viewing screen. Instructions can be displayed in a variety of languages. The telephone handset serves as a video game controller or a keyboard for composing a fax message. Later this year, the system will be integrated into a live, 12-channel stereo audio service that has been developed by Harris Corporation.

High-resolution video displays are becoming more and more common on long-haul flights. Integrating communication and entertainment services means that passengers will have more choices available to them, while generating more revenue for the airline. A passenger who does not need to make a phone call will, of course, not make a phone call. But this same passenger may decide to send a fax message, retrieve a stock quote, or relax by listening to a sporting event on the headphones, sending flowers to a friend, or watching a movie. Soon, more services will be available, including ground-to-air passenger paging (via a toll free number); additional electronic games, and even crossword puzzles; connecting flight information (airport maps displayed on the screen will guide passengers to the right gate for their connecting flight, and when a flight is delayed, new departure times will be shown); current news and weather; aircraft position ("Did we just fly over the Grand Canyon?"); and express check-in for rental cars and hotels, as well as hotel reservations. And, thanks to the development of antennas that are extremely powerful, yet small enough to fit on airplanes, it may soon be possible to beam live television signals to planes in-flight.

LIVE RADIO AND TV

Will passengers someday be watching their favorite TV shows from their airline seats? A television test could be conducted within a year. However, live audio transmission is first in line.

Recently, the FCC awarded IFPC an experimental license that allows the company to offer live radio in-flight. This new system may well displace the current taped in-flight listening programs by providing passengers with twelve channels of live news, sports, and musical formats. Integrated with the telephone service, the new system interfaces with the video screen to provide a continuously updated program menu. The telephone handset is used to select the channels.

Sky Radio, the Gannett owned service has been offering a two-channel version of this service with a monaural audio system since last year. Airborne passengers have been able to hear the World Series, the Super Bowl, and election coverage. SUMMARY

By now, you are probably wondering how passengers will be able to conveniently pay for all these in-flight amenities. The Claircom, FlightLink and Airfone systems allow you to pay for telephone calls by sliding your credit card through the telephone handset.

By integrating in-flight services, for the first time in history, the airlines have the ability to provide their passengers with every conceivable in-flight amenity. What's more, thanks to these same technologies, advanced ATG digital links with: multimedia; megastorage computing power; and new flat panel active matrix color LCD displays. Real time analysis can identify exactly what the airborne consumer has used, and can log each interaction, proof of sale, and name of provider.

As advanced communication and entertainment systems become more commonplace aboard aircraft, there is much for the airlines and passengers to look forward to. In fact, as one journalist said after testing the FlightLink system on a USAir jetliner, "You can do everything from your seat except fly the plane."

Sandra Goeken Martis is the chairman and chief executive officer of In-Flight Phone International, and the president of In-Flight Phone Corporation. IFPC currently is installing its FlightLink system aboard USAir, America West and Carnival Airlines. Ms. Goeken Martis is also a member of the FCC's Small Business Advisory Committee.