Fixing In-Flight Wi-Fi

passenger journey. That can be particularly attractive to business travelers who need to stay connected when they’re off the plane, too.

Mobile operators can use the OpenRoaming federation to offer in-flight roaming services, so their customers have a frictionless, cellular-like connection experience via the in-flight Wi-Fi service. Those operators then can market on-board Wi-Fi as a perk to encourage consumers to upgrade to higher-tier plans or to sign up business travelers who need seamless, ubiquitous Internet connectivity as a must-have.

To summarize, OpenRoaming provides a variety of business benefits for airlines and other ecosystem members:

• A friction-free connection experience eliminates the main barrier to purchasing premium services such as IFE, meaning more revenue for airlines and their business partners.
  
  
•  By simply adding the appropriate RCOIs to their network, airlines and other ecosystem members can leverage OpenRoaming to enhance security and privacy, which are key concerns for business travelers.
  
  
•  As a federated service, OpenRoaming ensures that travelers get and stay connected at additional locations throughout their journey to and in the airport, and finally on board the aircraft. Airlines can use this gate-to-gate experience to foster new loyalty opportunities.
  
  
• OpenRoaming works alongside Wireless Roaming Intermediary eXchange (WRIX), the WBA industry standard to harmonize the Wi-Fi Roaming business between operators and network providers.

Figure 2: The evolution of in-flight Wi-Fi
click to enlarge

The bottom line is that OpenRoaming is a proven way to enable simple, seamless, and secure Wi-Fi access around cities, college campuses, and other public spaces (see Figure 2, above). The airline ecosystem can leverage OpenRoaming to provide travelers with the convenient, ubiquitous connectivity that benefits everyone.