Row 44
Encyclopedia
Row 44 is a Westlake Village, California
-based company providing in-flight broadband connectivity for the passengers, cockpit and crew of commercial aircraft. The company's service includes internet access, live television and other entertainment content, and cell phone services (where permitted) for commercial air passengers, as well as airline operations services for cockpit and crew.
In addition to its in-flight broadband system, Row 44 also offers airlines an in-flight walled-garden service that uses the onboard connectivity solution to offer passengers a custom menu of entertainment and connectivity services, which are free to access. These services, a combination of free and fee-based offerings, include online shopping at selected whitelisted websites, non-SMS texting to the ground, live television, video games and other content. Row 44 announced this walled-garden website on October 6, 2009. Rollout partners include SkyMall, which will manage retail partners and their operations; multichannel retailer
HSN, which will offer live online video programming; and specialists in travel and mobility like JiWire, BeDynamic and Pinger. Row 44 has given the walled garden the working name Skytown Center, but each airline will brand and name the service.
Row 44's corporate headquarters are in Westlake Village, California, and the company has engineering and development facilities near Chicago, Illinois, an international business development office in London, United Kingdom, and marketing offices in Las Vegas, Nevada, headed by Row 44's newest executive, Chief Commercial Officer Howard Lefkowitz, the former CEO of VEGAS.com.
John Guidon and Southern California technology entrepreneur Gregg Fialcowitz, to compete with the in-flight Wi-Fi services of now defunct Connexion by Boeing
. The company is funded by private investors.
The company got its start when co-founder Gregg Fialcowitz was building CopperVision, a company attempting to provide satellite television services to the multiple-dwelling-unit market. Working with News Corp and DirecTV, Gregg established a relationship with Hughes Network Systems (HNS), and realized that the same satellite technology could provide in-flight data services to airliners. Gregg approached friend and colleague John Guidon, a technology entrepreneur and pilot who had built the chip-making firm ComCore, which he sold to National Semiconductor for $150 million. John's background also included engineering stints at defense contractors Marconi Space and Defense Systems and Litton, where he designed Inertial Navigation Unit elements still used in aircraft today. Gregg and John worked with executives at Hughes, who were receptive to leveraging their global infrastructure to provide airline Wi-Fi, and secured exclusive North American rights for Row 44 for this application, as well as the rights to leverage Hughes's satellite infrastructure around the world.
The company's name is derived from Guidon's experience as a teenager sitting in row 44 on a DC-10 airplane when traveling from the UK to the US: “The seats don’t recline [in row 44], you’re right under an engine, the galley’s right behind you and you’re next to the lavatories. If we can make the flight enjoyable for the folks in Row 44, we’ve accomplished our goal.”
, Row 44 leases capacity from the existing HughesNet satellite
Internet
access system enabling them to provide worldwide services even over water. Row 44 and HughesNet entered into a 15-year contract.
According to Row 44, their equipment, including an antenna
atop the aircraft
, can be installed on an airplane in just two aircraft
overnights and weighs merely 150 lb compared to Connexion by Boeing
's 800 lb hardware.
On August 5, 2009, Row 44 received permanent authority from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate its satellite-based broadband system aboard commercial aircraft over US airspace.
- Ku-band antenna system—mounted atop the aircraft fuselage and encased within a fiberglass, RF-transparent radome.
- Four Line Replaceable Units (LRUs) -- mounted inside the aircraft, above the cabin headliner. These LRUs include an Antenna Control Unit (ACU), Modem Data Unit (MDU), Server Management Unit (SMU), and High Power Transceiver (HPT).
- Cabin Wireless LAN Units—mounted throughout the aircraft cabin as needed to provide consistent Wi-Fi signal for passenger and crew use.
Row 44's top-mounted Ku-band antennas communicate with geostationary satellites within the Hughes Network Systems (HNS) global satellite infrastructure, allowing Row 44 to offer uninterrupted in-flight Wi-Fi service over water and on airlines' routes virtually anywhere in the world.
began testing the system aboard several of its planes in February 2009.
Alaska Airlines
began testing Row 44's system aboard one of its aircraft in February 2009 as well.
In April 2009, Alaska Airlines released the results of its own in-flight trials with Row 44's system. The study, which involved 2,100 passengers, found that 96% who used Row 44's Wi-Fi service on an Alaska flight planned to do so again. However, in February 2010, Alaska Airlines chose to proceed instead with a fleet-wide install of Gogo Inflight Internet
instead, based on cost.
United Airlines is testing Row 44 on its testbed Boeing 757, N593UA. This 757 has slimline leather seats and 110 V power outlets in coach, and is used to test new technology for United's fleet. United also operates Gogo Wi-Fi
, a competing product, on its Premium Service fleet of 757s. It remains to be seen which provider United will chose in the long term.
In addition to the company's first commercial airline customers, Row 44 has also been testing its in-flight Wi-Fi system aboard its own test plane, a 1950s Grumman Albatross sea plane. The company purchased and restored the aircraft in mid-2008. The Albatross, originally designed for the US Air Force for search-and-rescue operations (and later used by the Coast Guard for the same purpose), has the same curvature atop its fuselage as a Boeing 737—making it an ideal aircraft to test Row 44's satellite antenna and radome.
Row 44 outfitted The Albatross with the identical system it will be installing in commercial aircraft. (One difference in hardware, however, is that only a single wireless LAN unit was installed inside the dozen-seater Albatross cabin, whereas commercial aircraft will require two or more such units to provide consistent signal throughout the cabin.)
, the fifth largest low-cost carrier
in Europe, announced on April 27, 2009, that it would begin installing Row 44's in-flight broadband on the airline's entire fleet (including more than 40 on-order new aircraft.
Southwest Airlines announced on August 21, 2009, that the airline had selected Row 44's broadband system for its entire fleet of more than 540 aircraft. The airline announced it planned to begin equipping its planes with Row 44's system in the first quarter of 2010.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
-based company providing in-flight broadband connectivity for the passengers, cockpit and crew of commercial aircraft. The company's service includes internet access, live television and other entertainment content, and cell phone services (where permitted) for commercial air passengers, as well as airline operations services for cockpit and crew.
In addition to its in-flight broadband system, Row 44 also offers airlines an in-flight walled-garden service that uses the onboard connectivity solution to offer passengers a custom menu of entertainment and connectivity services, which are free to access. These services, a combination of free and fee-based offerings, include online shopping at selected whitelisted websites, non-SMS texting to the ground, live television, video games and other content. Row 44 announced this walled-garden website on October 6, 2009. Rollout partners include SkyMall, which will manage retail partners and their operations; multichannel retailer
Multichannel retailer
A multichannel retailer is a company that sells directly to the public via more than one distribution channel. Most multichannel retailers sell through mail order catalogs and "brick & mortar" retail stores...
HSN, which will offer live online video programming; and specialists in travel and mobility like JiWire, BeDynamic and Pinger. Row 44 has given the walled garden the working name Skytown Center, but each airline will brand and name the service.
Row 44's corporate headquarters are in Westlake Village, California, and the company has engineering and development facilities near Chicago, Illinois, an international business development office in London, United Kingdom, and marketing offices in Las Vegas, Nevada, headed by Row 44's newest executive, Chief Commercial Officer Howard Lefkowitz, the former CEO of VEGAS.com.
Corporate history
Row 44 was founded in 2004 by British-born entrepreneurEntrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
John Guidon and Southern California technology entrepreneur Gregg Fialcowitz, to compete with the in-flight Wi-Fi services of now defunct Connexion by Boeing
Connexion by Boeing
Connexion by Boeing was an in-flight online Internet connectivity service from Boeing. This service allowed travellers to access a high-speed internet connection while on board a plane in flight through a wired Ethernet or a wireless 802.11 Wi-Fi connection. Connexion by Boeing was formed as a...
. The company is funded by private investors.
The company got its start when co-founder Gregg Fialcowitz was building CopperVision, a company attempting to provide satellite television services to the multiple-dwelling-unit market. Working with News Corp and DirecTV, Gregg established a relationship with Hughes Network Systems (HNS), and realized that the same satellite technology could provide in-flight data services to airliners. Gregg approached friend and colleague John Guidon, a technology entrepreneur and pilot who had built the chip-making firm ComCore, which he sold to National Semiconductor for $150 million. John's background also included engineering stints at defense contractors Marconi Space and Defense Systems and Litton, where he designed Inertial Navigation Unit elements still used in aircraft today. Gregg and John worked with executives at Hughes, who were receptive to leveraging their global infrastructure to provide airline Wi-Fi, and secured exclusive North American rights for Row 44 for this application, as well as the rights to leverage Hughes's satellite infrastructure around the world.
The company's name is derived from Guidon's experience as a teenager sitting in row 44 on a DC-10 airplane when traveling from the UK to the US: “The seats don’t recline [in row 44], you’re right under an engine, the galley’s right behind you and you’re next to the lavatories. If we can make the flight enjoyable for the folks in Row 44, we’ve accomplished our goal.”
Satellite-based uplink
In contrast to other providers that use ground-based antennas to link the aircraft to their networksComputer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
, Row 44 leases capacity from the existing HughesNet satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
access system enabling them to provide worldwide services even over water. Row 44 and HughesNet entered into a 15-year contract.
According to Row 44, their equipment, including an antenna
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
atop the aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
, can be installed on an airplane in just two aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
overnights and weighs merely 150 lb compared to Connexion by Boeing
Connexion by Boeing
Connexion by Boeing was an in-flight online Internet connectivity service from Boeing. This service allowed travellers to access a high-speed internet connection while on board a plane in flight through a wired Ethernet or a wireless 802.11 Wi-Fi connection. Connexion by Boeing was formed as a...
's 800 lb hardware.
On August 5, 2009, Row 44 received permanent authority from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate its satellite-based broadband system aboard commercial aircraft over US airspace.
The System
Row 44's in-flight broadband solution consists of the following components:- Ku-band antenna system—mounted atop the aircraft fuselage and encased within a fiberglass, RF-transparent radome.
- Four Line Replaceable Units (LRUs) -- mounted inside the aircraft, above the cabin headliner. These LRUs include an Antenna Control Unit (ACU), Modem Data Unit (MDU), Server Management Unit (SMU), and High Power Transceiver (HPT).
- Cabin Wireless LAN Units—mounted throughout the aircraft cabin as needed to provide consistent Wi-Fi signal for passenger and crew use.
Row 44's top-mounted Ku-band antennas communicate with geostationary satellites within the Hughes Network Systems (HNS) global satellite infrastructure, allowing Row 44 to offer uninterrupted in-flight Wi-Fi service over water and on airlines' routes virtually anywhere in the world.
Testing phase
Southwest AirlinesSouthwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines Co. is an American low-cost airline based in Dallas, Texas. Southwest is the largest airline in the United States, based upon domestic passengers carried,...
began testing the system aboard several of its planes in February 2009.
Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines is an airline based in the Seattle suburb of SeaTac, Washington in the United States. The airline originated in 1932 as McGee Airways. After many mergers with and acquisitions of other airlines, including Star Air Service, it became known as Alaska Airlines in 1944...
began testing Row 44's system aboard one of its aircraft in February 2009 as well.
In April 2009, Alaska Airlines released the results of its own in-flight trials with Row 44's system. The study, which involved 2,100 passengers, found that 96% who used Row 44's Wi-Fi service on an Alaska flight planned to do so again. However, in February 2010, Alaska Airlines chose to proceed instead with a fleet-wide install of Gogo Inflight Internet
Gogo Inflight Internet
Gogo provides in-flight broadband Internet service, streaming video and other connectivity services for commercial and business aircraft. In June of 2011, the company formally changed its name from Aircell to Gogo as part of a rebranding effort...
instead, based on cost.
United Airlines is testing Row 44 on its testbed Boeing 757, N593UA. This 757 has slimline leather seats and 110 V power outlets in coach, and is used to test new technology for United's fleet. United also operates Gogo Wi-Fi
Gogo Inflight Internet
Gogo provides in-flight broadband Internet service, streaming video and other connectivity services for commercial and business aircraft. In June of 2011, the company formally changed its name from Aircell to Gogo as part of a rebranding effort...
, a competing product, on its Premium Service fleet of 757s. It remains to be seen which provider United will chose in the long term.
In addition to the company's first commercial airline customers, Row 44 has also been testing its in-flight Wi-Fi system aboard its own test plane, a 1950s Grumman Albatross sea plane. The company purchased and restored the aircraft in mid-2008. The Albatross, originally designed for the US Air Force for search-and-rescue operations (and later used by the Coast Guard for the same purpose), has the same curvature atop its fuselage as a Boeing 737—making it an ideal aircraft to test Row 44's satellite antenna and radome.
Row 44 outfitted The Albatross with the identical system it will be installing in commercial aircraft. (One difference in hardware, however, is that only a single wireless LAN unit was installed inside the dozen-seater Albatross cabin, whereas commercial aircraft will require two or more such units to provide consistent signal throughout the cabin.)
Airline deployment announcements
Norwegian Air ShuttleNorwegian Air Shuttle
Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA , trading as Norwegian, is the second-largest airline in Scandinavia. In 2010, it transported 13.0 million people. As of October 2011, Norwegian operates a total fleet of 62 aircraft; 17 Boeing 737-300s and 45 Boeing 737-800s...
, the fifth largest low-cost carrier
Low-cost carrier
A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline is an airline that generally has lower fares and fewer comforts...
in Europe, announced on April 27, 2009, that it would begin installing Row 44's in-flight broadband on the airline's entire fleet (including more than 40 on-order new aircraft.
Southwest Airlines announced on August 21, 2009, that the airline had selected Row 44's broadband system for its entire fleet of more than 540 aircraft. The airline announced it planned to begin equipping its planes with Row 44's system in the first quarter of 2010.
See also
- AircellAircellAircell is a private company started in 1991 developing broadband for both private and commercial aviation. Aircell is the only company in the United States authorized by the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Aviation Administration to use frequencies in the 800 MHz band for...
- AirfoneAirfoneAirfone is a brand of air-ground radiotelephone service offered by Verizon. Airfone allows passengers to make telephone calls in-flight. It was originated by John D. Goeken in the 1970s. Western Union purchased a fifty percent share in Airfone in 1981 and sold to GTE in 1986 for $39 million cash...
- AeroMobileAeroMobileAeroMobile was established as a joint venture between ARINC and Telenor in 2006 and since January 2010, AeroMobile is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telenor...
- Connexion by BoeingConnexion by BoeingConnexion by Boeing was an in-flight online Internet connectivity service from Boeing. This service allowed travellers to access a high-speed internet connection while on board a plane in flight through a wired Ethernet or a wireless 802.11 Wi-Fi connection. Connexion by Boeing was formed as a...
- FlyNetFlyNet- History :Delivered using the Connexion by Boeing system from its first demonstration flight in 2003 until Connexion by Boeing's discontinuation in 2006, the service utilized Ku band radio to provide passengers with onboard Internet access, which they could connect to via Wi-Fi.Lufthansa plans to...
- InmarsatInmarsatInmarsat plc is a British satellite telecommunications company, offering global, mobile services. It provides telephony and data services to users worldwide, via portable or mobile terminals which communicate to ground stations through eleven geostationary telecommunications satellites...
- LiveTVLiveTVLiveTV is a major provider of airline in-flight entertainment systems. Originally a joint venture of Harris Corporation and BE Aerospace , it is now a wholly owned subsidiary of JetBlue Airways Corporation...
- Gogo Inflight InternetGogo Inflight InternetGogo provides in-flight broadband Internet service, streaming video and other connectivity services for commercial and business aircraft. In June of 2011, the company formally changed its name from Aircell to Gogo as part of a rebranding effort...
- OnAirOnAirIncorporated in February 2005, OnAir is a joint venture with SITA and Airbus. OnAir is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has operations in Seattle and Montreal and sales offices in London, Kuala Lumpur and Dubai....
- Panasonic AvionicsPanasonic Avionics CorporationPanasonic Avionics Corporation is a subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation and is headquartered in Lake Forest, California with major business functions also shared with the former headquarters located in Bothell, WA.Established in 1980, the product engineering and development departments are...