What will be different for AirCell?
First, we think we are starting out to try and fill the last great frontier in the domestic U.S. You can go virtually any place except on an airplane and get connected the way you want to. We’ll be offering a WiFi hotpot in the sky, connected with EV-DO technology on the ground, allowing customers to sustain connectivity where and when they want to. It’s helpful to look structurally at the difference between how we are approaching and the way Boeing was. Their product weighed 800 pounds, and it was introduced in a world where every pound is important. Airplanes have a massive program to get rid of pounds. Connexion was a satellite product that required a specialized antenna that was enormous and induced a drag on the airplane. It also required that an airplane be out of service for two weeks so it could be installed. Estimates are that it cost $500,000 for Connexion equipment and that induces a real high hurdle to the economics of making anything work. That, in addition to fixed costs
