Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Continental Airlines Offers In-Flight SMS and Instant Messaging

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 20:26:54 -0400

Continental Airlines Offers In-Flight SMS and Instant Messaging

Continental Airlines is offering Verizon Airfone's JetConnect service on its entire
fleet of narrow-body aircraft. JetConnect is an in-flight communication, news
and entertainment service and is the only provider of instant messaging and
text-messaging services to passengers on U.S. commercial flights, Verizon
Airfone said. Passengers access JetConnect by plugging their laptops or PDAs
into a jack on the Verizon Airfone handset. For $5.99 per flight, they can play
online games, view destination information such as restaurant listings and local
attractions, and get up-to-the-minute news, weather, sports and stock
information. But most passengers are logging on to use JetConnect's
messaging features. Verizon Airfone began offering JetConnect on select
Continental flights in November 2002.

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Verizon IM-Enables Continental Airlines

April 26, 2003
By Christopher Saunders

Instant messaging and wireless messaging are reaching new heights.

Verizon Airfone, a unit of the New York-based Baby Bell, has equipped Continental
Airline's (Quote, Company Info) narrow-body fleet with its JetConnect service. According
to Verizon (Quote, Company Info), the most-used feature of the service, which began being
deployed in fall, is its support for instant messaging and wireless messaging.

Airfones, those credit-card-operated phones you see wired into the backs of the seats in
front of you on a host of domestic and international carriers -- including Continental,
American Airlines (Quote, Company Info), Delta Air Lines (Quote, Company Info), United
Airlines (Quote, Company Info), British Airways (Quote, Company Info), and a host of
others -- support data connections in addition to voice.

Since November, that's meant that Verizon can also provision software to laptop or PDA
users, via a Web portal, for $5.99 per flight. Pinnacor (Quote, Company Info), formerly
known as ScreamingMedia, is the vendor providing the technology.

While the service also offers games, news, and flight and city information, the company
said most passengers use the data connection for messaging. The built-in IM client can
connect to popular public messaging networks like America Online's (Quote, Company Info)
AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ, Microsoft's (Quote, Company Info) MSN Messenger, and Yahoo!
(Quote, Company Info) Messenger, while also supporting intranet communications -- that is,
passenger-to-passenger.  Text messaging is also supported through the Web portal.

"We continually search for value-added services and technologies that will provide our
customers with a more enjoyable in-flight experience," said Mark Bergsrud, Continental
Airlines vice president, marketing programs.  "Depending on the customer's frame of mind,
JetConnect can be a fun diversion or a means to get more work done while in flight."

The IM enhancements to the already installed Airfones -- an upgrade that had been provided
at no cost to Continental, Verizon said -- could potentially act as a means to better
differentiate the air carrier's service from competitors. That's obviously a consideration
during the current period of economic woes for the nation's commercial airlines.

"Imagine flying Continental coast-to-coast and interacting in real-time with your
colleagues in the office [during] the whole flight," said Bill Pallone, president of
Verizon
Airfone. "JetConnect is a differentiator in terms of the efficiencies business fliers will

gain."

Still, while Oak Brook, Ill.-based Verizon Airfone is the only provider of proprietary IM
systems on U.S. commercial flights, it's not the only service provider for Internet access

-- which means that in some cases, users can bring their own IM clients.

For instance, Pinnacor also provides the portal and messaging technology underlying
Connexion by Boeing (Quote, Company Info), high-speed Internet access service. The
product is being deployed on carriers including Lufthansa, and provides enough
bandwidth for even limited videoconferencing via Yahoo! Instant Messenger and other
clients.

There's also Tenzing, which actually provides e-mail capabilities to Verizon Airfone, but
also can provide e-mail and SMS services independently. It's backed by plane
manufacturer Airbus, and has clients including Cathay Pacific.

In addition to competition with offerings like Airfone's JetConnect, there are other
obstacles to ubiquitous in-flight instant messaging and wireless messaging. Most
importantly, it's not clear whether consumers and air carriers are fully ready for
built-in
communications offerings -- of any flavor.

Last year, AT&T Wireless (Quote, Company Info) shut down its Claircom subsidiary, a
rival of Airfone. The wireless operator said that demand was slack for the service, and
the company's airline partners believed they could save money on fuel costs by ditching
the on-board equipment needed to provide such services.