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| Connexion by Boeing:
Focus on anytime, |
| anywhere connectivity |
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| The Enterprise
Operations Center in Irvine, California, is the operational
heart of the Connexion by Boeing service. The Center
tracks service-equipped aircraft, monitoring every link
in the system. |
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Connexion by Boeing is a mobile information
services provider bringing high-speed, two-way connectivity
to aircraft in flight. The service will revolutionize
the way people work, communicate, entertain themselves
and relax while mobile.
An example of how Boeing is leveraging its strengths to move into
new services and markets, Connexion by Boeing is not just an airborne communications
service — it’s a comprehensive Internet-protocol-based enterprise.
Marketing, consumer sales, direct advertising, data mining, network operations,
billing, customer care, spares management, customer service, trouble-ticketing
and troubleshooting are all Internet-based operations — and all provide
potential revenue or cost-saving opportunities. Applying our expertise in space,
communications networks, aircraft, systems integration and customer focus, we
are opening a potentially lucrative new frontier that is based on core Boeing
strengths.
Our business strategy for this unique broadband service is first
to deploy it to commercial airplanes and to operators of executive jets in the
private and public sectors, then to e-enable the airplane for simplification
and operational efficiency, and finally to grow the business into other mobile
and remote communications markets.
In 2002, we completed the first commercial airline installation,
on a Lufthansa Airlines Boeing 747-400, which began a three-month service demonstration
in January 2003. British Airways began a demonstration in February 2003 on trans-Atlantic
routes aboard a Boeing 747-400. Japan Airlines and Scandinavian Air System also
announced plans to equip 10 and 11 long-range aircraft, respectively, both beginning
in 2004.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration certified a Connexion by
Boeing system aboard a Boeing 737-400, the first ever for an in-flight broadband
information system. We transmitted final documentation required for certification
from Connexion One (our demonstrator and research airplane) from 30,000 feet
above New Mexico. With the live transmission of a Boeing investor conference
early in the year, we gave our first public demonstration of the two-way broadband
video-teleconferencing capability of the system. In May, we demonstrated three-way
in-flight videoconferencing for the FAA.
An intensive Connexion “Working Together” process with
15 major airlines on four continents is contributing significantly to a common
vision for passenger and operator benefits, and is ensuring that the system can
be integrated seamlessly into airline fleets. |
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