The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently abated its licensing requirements for in-flight broadband Internet services.
The updated in-flight regulations recognize Earth Stations Aboard Aircraft as a licensed application of fixed-satellite service, allowing FCC to improve competition and process applications up to 50 percent faster.
Earth Stations Aboard Aircraft are one of the two mobile applications in the fixed-satellite service dominion, the other one being vehicle-mounted earth stations that offer satellite communications with land vehicles and air vessels. The commission had authorized companies before to provide these services, but only on an ad hoc basis.
The report stated that the FCC labeled the market of in-flight broadband Internet services as a very valuable sector of the mobile telecommunications market in the United States, “promoting the widespread availability of Internet access to airplane passengers.”
“By means of satellite antennas mounted on the exterior of aircraft, satellites will be able to communicate with mobile devices used by passengers and crew of those aircraft,” the Federal Communications Commission said in the report. “The satellite antenna will carry the signal to and from the aircraft, and mobile technologies such as Wi-Fi will provide communications within the aircraft's hull. The advancing technology has made it possible for mobile platforms to ensure antenna pointing accuracy sufficient to keep an earth station antenna focused on a satellite, while maintaining communications and preventing interference with adjacent satellites.”
The commission shares in-flight communications regulation duties with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
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