August 6, 2008 – THE tectonic plates of the passenger broadband market have just shifted with a mighty crack, with Delta Airlines announcing that it will have Gogo, Aircell’s terrestrially based North American service, aboard its entire fleet by next summer.

Meantime, US consultancy Freesky Research has poured cold water on the planned pricing scheme, declaring that per-flight tariffs won’t yield a satisfactory commercial return.

After a protracted phoney war of trials and rightward-sliding service introductions, the broadband industry has finally landed a no-strings-attached commitment from a major carrier. While the world waits for American Airlines to finish its 15-aircraft trial of Gogo and say yes or no, and for Row 44 and Panasonic to fly their Ku-band satellite offerings for the first time, Delta wants to start installing Aircell equipment this autumn and to have the service available to all passengers aboard more than 330 aircraft 12 months from now.

The airline’s passengers will be able to use their own WiFi-enabled devices, including laptops, BlackBerries and iPod Touches, to surf the Web, access corporate networks, send and receive email, and use text and instant messaging services. As things currently stand, Delta will be the third carrier to offer Gogo, following American – if the present trial on 15 domestic Boeing 767s has a satisfactory outcome – and Virgin America, which has committed to equipping its fleet of Airbus A320-family aircraft this year.

“Our customers asked for inflight connectivity and we’re responding by rolling out the most extensive WiFi network in the sky,” says Delta chief executive Richard Anderson. “Beginning this fall, our passengers will have the ability to stay connected when they travel with us throughout the continental USA.”

The service will be offered initially on Delta’s fleet of 133 MD88/90 twinjets before being rolled out to the remaining domestic fleet of more than 200 Boeing 737s, 757s and 767-300s in the first half of next year. Passengers will be invited to pay flat fees of $9.95 on flights of up to three hours and $12.95 on longer flights.

According to Washington DC-based Freesky Research, this kind of pricing won’t fly. “The airline broadband industry needs to lose its fixation with per-flight pricing,” says David Gross, author of a new report entitled Aviation Broadband Networks: 2009-2012. “It should either charge exceptionally high per-minute rates, as providers serving business jets and cruise ships do, and serve a high-end niche only, or move to the subscription model of terrestrial hotspot providers. The mushy middle approach of charging more than a ground service but less than a business jet service will neither attract the mass market nor maximise revenues from price-insensitive travellers.”