The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Aviation heard mostly from concerned aviation witnesses about safety issues related to the rollout of 5G wireless services in the C-band in a marathon hearing Wednesday (February 2) titled “Finding the Right Frequency: 5G Deployment & Aviation Safety.”

Federal agencies came under withering fire for failure to communicate over the issue. One legislator, though, suggested that it was a case of two sets of engineers at two different agencies — the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Aviation Administration — not speaking the same language when they were speaking at all.

Legislators also pointed out that the C-band interference issue had been identified years earlier, but there was still a last-minute scramble and talk of catastrophic consequences.

The telecom industry and the FCC were hammered by committee leadership for putting the telcos’ bottom line before safety — and not just in regard to aviation, but also to automobiles and GPS reliability.

Also: Wireless Companies Agree to Modified C-Band 5G Rollout

Democratic and Republican senators set the contentious tone by saying there had been an extraordinary lack of communications and coordination among the FCC, the FAA and the National Telecommunications & Information Administration. The result, the lawmakers said, was ridiculous, embarrassing and inexcusable. AT&T and Verizon Communications delayed their 5G rollouts twice over fears towers close to some airports could cause interference to altimeters, and then had to agree not to light up 5G towers in proximity to airports with low visibility issues while the FCC and FAA attempted to resolve an issue legislators said they had years to hammer out.

Full committee chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) put much of the blame on the wireless industry, saying it had kept key data on tower heights and positioning proprietary — refusing to share that data even though it was requested by the FAA — and then only late in the process releasing data on its “secret towers and powers.” Only then did it become clear that 5G and altimeters were going to be a big problem, DeFazio said.

He also blamed the FCC for auctioning the C-band spectrum, adding it had also sold off half of the vehicle-to-vehicle spectrum despite arguments from the transportation industry that it was needed for auto safety. He suggested it was much more important to the FCC that consumers could stream HD while walking down the street. DeFazio pointed out that the FCC’s V2V decision had been taken to court and he hoped it would lose. 

Adding in a third FCC decision — to allow Ligado to launch a satellite-delivered broadband system near GPS spectrum — DeFazio suggested the agency was ignoring any consequences beyond the telecom industry‘s bottom line. “That has to change,“ he said, then clearly angry, he argued the country does not even regulate telecom anymore, “which is why we have the crappiest cell phone service in the world.”

“Having a dropped call is way less serious than having a dropped airplane out of the sky,“ DeFazio said.

After AT&T and Verizon paid billions for C-band spectrum — and after the FCC engineers cleared their 5G services for takeoff adjacent to bandwidth used by aviation — the telcos agreed to delay and adjust their use of that spectrum. They were responding to airline industry and FAA concerns that 5G could cause “catastrophic” interference to avionics systems, specifically altimeters used to tell planes how close they are to the ground while taking off or landing in poor weather.

As a result, and under strong pressure from the Biden administration, the wireless broadband providers also agreed to some “exclusion zones” around those airports until the issue can be resolved, including via the adoption of new altimeter standards.

In his testimony, FAA administrator Steve Dickson said the telecom industry was cooperating and providing data, and that he was confident the issue could be resolved. He said the wireless industry and aviation were working on new flight test data that will help going forward, including retrofitting avionics to make sure they are C-band resistant.

That will likely include informal and formal methods as more 5G is rolled out and as the FCC frees up more spectrum for 5G.

Testifying for the wireless industry, among the eight airline industry witnesses, was CTIA president Meredith Attwell Baker. Baker is arguably uniquely qualified to weigh in, since she has seen the spectrum issues from the various vantages currently in the mix as former head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA).

Baker said the industry was committed to both safe flights and robust and reliable C-band 5G. But she also suggested that the rollout delays of AT&T and Verizon came despite “all available real-world evidence” that 5G and altimeters could coexist.

She also put some of the blame on the media, saying “the press tried to pit the future of wireless versus aviation,” which she said was “always a false choice.”

Baker said that millions of Americans are both getting 5G service and flying safely thanks to hard work in the past few years and weeks, with engineers working together.

Dickson had said that based on the new data from wireless companies, the FAA was now refining the exclusion zones. Baker pointed out that, as of January 28, the FCC had cleared 90% of the commercial fleet for low visibility landings in the vicinity of C-band 5G networks, proving “coexistence is attainable.” She said she was committed to being a good partner with aviation and to getting the other 10% of the fleet cleared for takeoff and landing.

But Baker's bottom line was that "[t]he wireless industry remains confident that 5G poses no risk to air traffic safety but has taken these steps to allow the FAA time to evaluate altimeter performance with C-Band 5G."

Also: Airline CEOs Say C-Band 5G Rollout Could Mean Chaos

As to providing data, she said that AT&T and Verizon last fall had provided “vast and unprecedented access to their 5G network deployment designs, radiofrequency planning, and equipment performance.”

Playing something of the peacemaker, Dickson suggested that the delay in getting the data was that there was a “lack of understanding” of what data the FAA needed because the telcos had never had to produce it for the government before.

All sides agreed that 5G would continue to roll out, that aviation needed to be protected, and that such protection would require better coordination and communication going forward. That“s something they said was happening but with still "a lot of work to do."

Asked about what lessons the industry had learned, Baker said that they had followed the FCC rules back in March 2020 and how the altimeter issue did not get resolved before the C-Band auction she did not understand. She pointed out that she had worked at NTIA and that the interagency coordination process had worked on some "hairy spectrum issues."

She said that perhaps now that the FCC and NTIA have permanent leadership — NTIA administrator Alan Davidson and FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel — they could “take a fresh look at what is working and what is not.” She said she hoped they would do that.

“NATE welcomes the leadership and testimony of Meredith Attwell Baker, President and CEO of CTIA before the House Subcommittee on Aviation," said Todd Schlekeway, president and CEO of NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association. "Ms. Baker’s testimony made clear that the wireless industry and the Federal Communications Commission followed the science and real world usage of 5G services and the impact on aviation. “NATE urges policy makers to continually work together to advance 5G services and maintain America’s global leadership in wireless telecommunications that have allowed for telework and telehealth services and many other technologies that have helped Americans cope with a global pandemic.” ■

President Joe Biden said during his press conference Wednesday (January 19) that his administration “doesn’t deal with 5G,” by which he appeared to mean indirectly, since he has also signaled the administration has been a key player in a key 5G issue.

The president was asked what he has done to restore the public’s faith in the competence of his administration on issues including 5G and the potential that the rollout of the technology by AT&T and Verizon in C-band spectrum adjacent to aviation systems could cause harmful interference to radio altimeters that planes use in bad-weather takeoffs and landings.

Biden said as to “whether or not there is competence in dealing with 5G,” the fact was that the issue was between two “private enterprises” — one promoting 5G in the wireless industry and the airlines — though he conceded both are regulated by the government.

Also: Biden: Cable Looks Like It‘s ’Going South‘

He said his role was to push as hard as he could for a delay in the 5G rollout that was requested by the airlines so they could “modernize.” Wireless carriers have said the airlines have already had a couple of years to do so.

But as to his administration not dealing with 5G, Biden has issued statements coinciding with the two voluntary rollout delays by Verizon and AT&T, as well as their decision to provide airport buffer zones, at least for the time being.

In the president’s January 18 statement, issued after the agreement on the buffer zones, the administration for all appearances seemed definitely to be dealing with the issue.

“My team has been engaging nonstop with the wireless carriers, airlines, and aviation equipment manufacturers to chart a path forward for 5G deployment and aviation to safely coexist,” he said, “and, at my direction, they will continue to do so until we close the remaining gap and reach a permanent, workable solution around these key airports.”

The president said “he gets” that anything that happens that is consequential is supposed to be government’s responsibility. ■

Airline pilots have joined their airline bosses in asking the Federal Communications Commission to stay its decision to allow a rollout of 5G wireless in the C-band spectrum adjacent to the bandwidth used for critical aviation devices.

In a January 2 filing with the FCC, the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) said that wireless operations could interfere with the radio altimeters they use to determine a plane's height-above-terrain. And because there is no other sources of that info, the interference may not be detectable and shut could provide “hazardously misleading” information to flight crews.

AT&T and Verizon Communications have said they would roll out their service January 5 despite Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg‘s call for a delay. They have already delayed that rollout from December 5 due to concerns about interference to altimeters.

AT&T and Verizon were the big winners in the FCC's C-band spectrum auction.

The airline industry filed an emergency petition at the FCC asking the agency to stop implementation of rules for the rollout of 5G in the band and suggesting not doing so would cost he airline industry $1 billion and delay shipments of COVID-19 vaccines and tests.

The airlines wanted a decision by Monday (January 3).

The airline industry has filed an emergency petition at the FCC asking that the commission stop implementation of rules for the rollout of 5G in the band and suggesting not to do so could cost the airline industry a billion dollars and delay shipments of COVID-19 vaccines and tests.

It is just the latest battle line in the air war between the FCC and aviation over what the latter said is the potential for dangerous interference to critical aviation systems like altimeters.

The petition was filed Thursday (December 30) by Airlines for America (A4A), representing the major passenger and cargo airlines in the U.S. (as well as Air Canada). 

Already experiencing COVID-19-related cancellations, the airlines painted a doomsday scenario if 5G rolls out in the band as planned January 5. (AT&T and Verizon, the big winners in the C-band auction, agreed to postpone that rollout from December 5, 2021).

There are several key factors to granting a stay, one of which is irreparable harm. A4A said that would clearly be the case.

A4A said that if wireless proceeds as planned in the band, their airlines "confront the impending need to (a) reroute and/or cancel thousands of airline flights, (b) dislocate millions of passengers and airline crews and (c) delay delivery of time sensitive, critical shipments (including COVID-19 vaccines and tests)."

The economic loss would likely top $1 billion, they told the FCC, "because of their inability to rely on the proper operation of aircraft altimeters due to the interference in their operation caused by higher-powered 3.7 GHz [C-band] licensees."

They want the FCC to put a stop to wireless service in "certain designated airport locations" until the FCC has ruled on a petition for reconsideration--which they filed back in May 2020--and the FCC and FAA have resolved safety issues. 

They say the FCC has not provided a "reasoned analysis" for rejecting evidence submitted by aviation interests of harmful interference.

The FCC signaled two weeks ago that it is considering putting new restrictions on wireless use of C-band spectrum, including a nationwide power reduction.

Also: FCC Signals Possible C-Band Power Down

The Federal Communications Commission freed up C-band spectrum for 5G wireless use, auctioning it for a record $81.1 billion. Its engineers said that wireless and incumbent aviation systems could share the band without interference, but the airline industry and the Federal Aviation Administration begged to differ.

FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel told Congress that information the FCC received after adopting the framework for C-band spectrum sharing suggested that the presence of C-band operations could cause some erroneous altimeter readings.

Given that new info, she said, the FCC is taking the report "very seriously," serious enough to open a proceeding to review the findings and whether any changes need to be made to the C-band rules.

A4A suggested it needs to take it seriously. "[V]irtually the entirety of the American public will be significantly and adversely affected if the January 5th date is not stayed," it said.

"Late in the day on the eve of the three day holiday weekend, the airline industry has filed an 'emergency' petition demanding that the FCC halt implementation of new rules that pave the way for wider availability of new 5G services," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, which also says the spectrum should be freed up for broadband. "Its demand that the FCC act over the weekend - by January 3 - to grant the petition would be outrageous under any circumstances, but the fact that the underlying decision was issued almost two years ago makes it plain that the airline industry’s sneak attack is grounded in politics, not law.

"As the U.S. Court of Appeals reiterated in a similar case just a few days ago, the FCC is entitled to a maximum degree of deference in technological decisions such as this one. Indeed, not only has the FCC carefully weighed all of the airlines’ claims, but it has worked with AT&T and Verizon to make absolutely certain that implementation will be entirely consistent with public safety.

"The FCC should reject this new ploy out of hand. And, if the airlines make good on their threat to take this demand to court, the court should also dismiss it immediately." ■

Global Eagle Entertainment, a start-up aimed at providing content and broadband entertainment to the airline industry, said Thursday that it has named Nielsen global president Steve Hasker to its board of directors.

"We're excited to have Steve join GEE's Board of Directors," said Global Eagle CEO  Dave Davis in a statement. "Steve brings a wealth of experience to our board and company, including unique insights into the world of what consumers watch and buy. As we expand our digital media advertising and inflight entertainment offerings, including with our AIR Series of products, we believe Steve will provide innovative ideas and relationships to help propel GEE forward."

Hasker currently serves as global president at Nielsen, overseeing its media business as well as its entire global product portfolio across the media and consumer sectors. Previously, he served as president, global products at Nielsen.

Global Eagle was formed in formed in 2011 by former CBS Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment president Jeff Sagansky and former MGM chairman and CEO Harry Sloan as a special purpose acquisition company and raised about $190 million to invest in the in-flight entertainment industry. Current customers include Southwest Airlines and several international carriers, such as Hong Kong Airlines,  Nok Air (Thailand)  and Canadian carrier WestJet.     

“TV everywhere” is now available in the clouds. Literally.

While U.S. airlines may be cutting back on snacks and free checked bags, there’s one service most are going overboard to deliver: streaming TV entertainment.

Like never before, airlines are launching videostreaming services that use WiFi to deliver major network-TV programming to passengers’ smartphones, tablets and laptops.

This “bring your own device,” or BYOD, model is allowing passengers access to in-flight entertainment on planes that didn’t have it before, and in many cases augmenting existing TV services with on-demand content. And it often provides a higher-quality viewing experience than a passenger would get with an aging, low-resolution seat-back display.

The new wireless streaming services are also being rolled out in lockstep with high-speed Internet access by some international carriers that are just introducing connectivity to their fleets.

Southwest Airlines, for example, has offered a 20-channel live-TV streaming service since mid-2013, available free on passenger devices. Delta Air Lines, which already offers live satellite TV on seat-back displays in many of its large jets, last summer launched free streaming video to passenger-owned devices on smaller regional jets through its “Delta Studio” service.

United Airlines announced in October that it will roll out a similar on-demand streaming service on 200 smaller regional jets through next year. JetBlue Airways in November introduced WiFi-enabled streaming video through its “Fly-Fi Hub” service with on-demand shows from Fox and National Geographic Channel. And both Alaska Airlines and Canadian lowcost carrier WestJet Airlines are rolling out new videostreaming services.

While airlines continue to invest in seat-back displays, particularly for large planes making long flights, streaming video to personal devices is now seen as being good enough to serve as the sole entertainment offering on some flights.

And in-flight streaming on jets is expected to grow as more planes add WiFi connectivity to allow passengers to access the Internet and check email in-flight — while at the same time generating ancillary revenues for the airlines.

“With all of our newer domestic narrow-bodies, we’re looking at personal device entertainment as the primary IFE [in-flight entertainment] option,” Tarek Abdel- Halim, managing director of passenger systems at United, said.

Airline executives said the personal-device model can result in a better viewing experience for passengers. Consumers tend to buy new smartphones or tablets every two years or so; Abdel-Halim said a seat-back screen may be used for 10 to 12 years before being replaced and tends to show wear and tear.

“It’s a more private experience for the passenger, and they’re comfortable with the UI [user interface]; they know how to navigate their own device,” Abdel-Halim said. “So we can have a really premium viewing experience by leveraging the on-board server, which holds a lot of content.” United offers more than 400 free TV movies and TV shows with its streaming service.

“We reach content deals with the studios and try to tailor the offering around our own viewing habits,” he said. “Today, it’s far more of an on-demand world — I want to watch what I want to watch, when I want to watch it.”

Seat-back TV displays have been around since the late 1980s and are a common feature on wide-body jets. JetBlue first launched DirecTV satellite TV on its planes back in 2000.

But in-flight WiFi is still a relatively new amenity. It is only found on around 3,500 commercial planes at present, with the vast majority in North America.

Analysts estimate that more than 12,000 commercial planes globally have yet to add Internet connectivity, and that the connectivity market itself could eventually grow to more than $2 billion in annual revenues.

“The business is changing pretty dramatically and growing,” said Dave Davis, CEO of Global Eagle Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based firm that licenses in-flight content, makes video-streaming software and provides satellite connectivity to Southwest and a number of international airlines.

While Global Eagle currently licenses content for seat-back displays in more than 4,000 planes, its Internet- connectivity systems are only installed on around 615 planes; 500 of those aircraft also offer streaming video to personal devices. Davis noted that Global Eagle also provides streaming software to airlines using other connectivity vendors, such as Philippines Airlines, which offers streaming video as the primary in-flight entertainment on its wide-body Airbus A-330 jets.

Myriad players serve the in-flight entertainment (IFE) and connectivity markets, including manufacturers of embedded seat-back displays, content service providers (CSPs) who serve as middlemen between programmers and airlines, and providers of connectivity via satellite or terrestrial links.

Most have their foot in the door of the nascent in-flight streaming market. Some of the biggest players include GoGo, an Itaska, Ill.-based company which leads the in-flight connectivity market with over 2,000 planes installed; Global Eagle, which counts media veterans Jeff Sagansky and Harry Sloan as major investors; and ViaSat, a Carlsbad, Calif.-based company which provides high-speed Internet connectivity via Ka-band satellite to JetBlue’s fleet as well as some United planes.

Besides making TV shows and movies available on more flights, streaming should also lower the cost of delivering that programming for airlines. One of the biggest benefits of BYOD in-flight TV to airlines is that it eliminates seat-back display systems and their associated wiring and under-seat boxes. That means significant weight savings, and thus lower fuel costs. Streaming also means lower maintenance costs than embedded displays, which usually can’t be fixed without parking the plane.

The BYOD model also allows passengers to take advantage of connected devices that they are bringing aboard anyway and which often provide a larger, higher-quality display that conventional seat-back systems.

“As airlines look to increase their profit margins, one of the biggest things they do is look at the cost of fuel and the weight of plane,” Elliot Wagner, vice president of international program sales and North America partnerships for Discovery Communications, said. “With streaming, you could theoretically get rid of 90% of the weight of your content system. So we are more than happy to work with these airlines to help them do that.”

As long as airlines and in-flight content service providers deliver the same level of digital rights management [DRM] that Discovery is used to on the ground, said Wagner, the programmer has no problem with streaming in an airline’s cabin.

“As a passenger, I think it’s great,” he added. “I’m bringing my iPad onboard regardless, and in most cases, it’s a better display [than the seat-back model].”

To be sure, streaming video to personal devices at 35,000 feet isn’t exactly the same as doing it on the street or in your living room. While the service is delivered via WiFi, the streaming content delivered within a plane represents more of a “walled garden” than all of the video delivered through the Internet. This is due both to bandwidth constraints and rights issues. As a result, typical “TV everywhere” content that can usually be watched via the Internet on authenticated devices might not always be available in the air.

Piper Jaffray analyst James Marsh, who covers Global Eagle, notes that most in-flight connectivity providers won’t let you access Netflix or other popular streaming sites today.

“Up to now, it’s more of a capacity issue and less of a rights issue,” Marsh said. “Most connectivity players won’t let you stream.”

As in-air bandwidth is expensive, most airlines are focused on using streaming to deliver on-demand movies from onboard servers preloaded with content. GoGo’s streaming product, GoGo Vision, is a good example. Launched in 2011 as a cost-effective add-on to GoGo’s existing WiFi connectivity services, the service is now on more than 1,600 commercial planes, many of which are already equipped with traditional seat-back displays or overhead monitors. GoGo Vision runs off onboard servers stocked with more than 100 movies and TV shows, and can be found anywhere from on regional jets up to large aircraft, where it is often an add-on service to traditional seatback TV.

GoGo Vision is used by most of GoGo’s major U.S. connectivity customers including Delta, American and United, as well as Japan Airlines for domestic flights, and is generally offered under the airline’s branding.

“When we launched connectivity in 2008, we knew there was interest from leisure travelers in watching movies and streaming video through the Internet, but the capacity wasn’t there when we launched,” GoGo spokesman Steve Nolan said. “So we created a product to allow customers to rent movies where it’s not such a bandwidth issue. That was the genesis of it.”

While GoGo hasn’t disclosed the cost of adding connectivity to a plane (analysts peg the cost of terrestrial connectivity at around $100,000 per plane, with satellite connectivity costing two to three times as much), Nolan said that adding GoGo Vision requires only a small incremental investment.

Besides installing a special antenna to receive ground-to-air data, providing connectivity on a plane is similar to installing a Wi-Fi system in a house, Nolan said. Needed equipment includes an onboard server, modem and several wireless access points (WAPs). Movies and TV shows are loaded onto the server while the plane is on the ground through a universal serial bus-based content loading system.

GoGo Vision content is generally offered on a pay-per- view basis, with TV shows selling for $1 and movies for $5.99. (Movies tend to be offered in the same window as DVDs for wireless streaming, not the “early window” that seat-back fare enjoys, though some smaller studios like Magnolia Pictures do offer movies in the early window.) Some airlines offer free fare.

Streaming won’t take over right away — airlines still have plans to improve embedded seatback displays (see sidebar, page 15), which often accompany power outlets for long flights. But even leading seatback vendors like Panasonic Avionics and Thales now have streaming products.

Thales, which provides a variety of technology for the aviation industry including navigation, communication and instrumentation systems, is along with Panasonic Avionics one of the two big vendors of embeddded seatback displays and already counts more than 75 airlines as customers.

In June it bought JetBlue’s LiveTV unit, which provides the live DirecTV seatback service to both JetBlue and United, to bolster its connectivity business.

The French conglomerate is now branching into wireless, in-flight entertainment with Middle Eastern airline Saudia, which is currently installing serverbased Thales systems that will stream on-demand video to passenger devices. Thales is also a partner of GoGo, which is working to improve its connectivity products for both the U.S. and the international markets.

In-Flight HD: Takeoff Still Delayed

While the hottest technology trend in in-flight entertainment may be streaming video to portable devices, that doesn’t mean that airlines are giving up on seat-back displays.

In fact, at the same time Delta announced its new BYOD [bring your own device] streaming service for regional jets last summer, the carrier touted its continued investment in seat-back entertainment. Delta said it would upgrade some 156 domestic narrow-body aircraft with seat-back displays through 2016, adding to the 140 domestic planes already with them. More than 100 new Airbus and Boeing planes are set to be delivered with seat-back displays through 2018, Delta also said.

“Especially for longer-haul planes, such as international routes, there’s always going to be a place for seatback solutions that also provide power as well,” GoGo spokesman Steve Nolan, whose company provides Delta’s streaming service, said. “But the trend is also moving away from that, as there are operational advantages to offering a [streaming] service to passengers who already have a device in their hands. We know from our research that a lot of people walk onto a plane with a WiFi device.”

One way that seat-back displays can stay relevant with passengers is by improving their resolution. Large airlines typically have a long refresh cycle for their IFE displays, as much as 10 to 12 years. So most units today are 480-line progressive standard definition, which pale in comparison to the high-definition displays featured in many of today’s smartphones, tablets and laptops and represent a fraction of the 4K resolution offered by the latest HD consumer sets.

“We have to get to the next generation of monitor, which is 1080p,” Tarek Abdel-Halim, United managing director of passenger systems, said. “The refresh rate of personal devices is always going to be faster, and allow the latest, greatest screen technology to come to PDE [personal-device entertainment].”

In the near term, wireless streaming to personal devices is probably the easiest way to provide HD content in-flight, Elliot Wagner, vice president of international program sales and North America partnerships for Discovery Communications, said.

“If we are able to send a deliverable encoded as an HD fi le, and have it displayed back on a Retina Display on an iPad, that would be ideal,” Wagner said.

One in-flight vendor that remains firmly committed to seat-back displays is Irvine, Calif.-based Lumexis, which said it has taken most of the weight out of the seat-back experience with a new architecture called FTTS, or fiber to the seat. Lumexis’s approach is to run embedded fiber-optic cables directly to each seatback display from a central server, forgoing any terminal units under the seat.

The company uses LED-backlit liquid crystal displays, with smaller economy and business class units (10.1-, 12.1- and 15.2-inch) at 720p resolution and larger (23-inch) first-class units at 1080p. Lumexis VP of sales Jon Norris said the system runs at 40% of the weight of a typical legacy in-seat system.

What’s On-Air Up There

Here’s a sampling of what’s available on a few of the biggest U.S. airlines:

United Airlines

The airline is now rolling out GoGo Vision on 200 two-cabin United Express regional jets, with installation scheduled to be complete by next summer.

By the end of this year, all of United’s domestic planes are scheduled to offer WiFi, plus either seat-back DirecTV service or wireless streaming to personal devices, including iOS and Android devices accessible through United’s mobile app, as well as laptop computers. Close to 200 planes already offer streaming.

While most of its narrow-body fleet has seat-back DirecTV, United’s latest deliveries of 737s do not have seat-back displays. Instead, they are being installed with WiFi connectivity, then streaming video.

United’s streaming service is complimentary, as the airline is using an ad-sponsored approach for personal device entertainment with the Chase Mileage Plus Card as the current sponsor. United managing director of passenger systems Tarek Abdel-Halim said United still characterizes streaming as a beta product and hasn’t aggressively marketed the service. He didn’t provide detailed metrics on usage, but so far United has seen “good uptake,” he said, particularly on the Boeing 777s making long flights across the Pacific.

“Though it’s very early stages, from a domestic fleet point of view, I can’t envision a scenario where we go back to wired seat-back entertainment based on the initial response to PDE [personal device entertainment],” he said.

As the streaming service becomes more commonplace, United plans to ramp up its marketing, and to make connecting to United WiFi and loading up the in-flight portal “look very similar and have common capabilities” across different aircraft , Abdel-Halim added.

Southwest Airlines

Southwest, which introduced on-demand streaming content on its Boeing 737s in February 2013, five months later launched “TV Flies Free,” a 20- channel live TV service sponsored by Dish Network and viewable for free on customer-owned WiFi-capable devices. (Dish’s sponsorship ran through 2014, and the service is now sponsored by Chase and called “Free Live TV Compliments of the Rapid Rewards Credit Card.”) Streaming video is the only form of in-flight entertainment that price-conscious Southwest offers.

While 80% of Southwest’s fleet has Wi-Fi connectivity today, its Boeing 737s had neither Internet access nor in-flight entertainment just five years ago. The satellite-based connectivity system from Global Eagle/ Row 44 uses a Ku-band satellite connection to deliver live video in a “dedicated pipe” alongside Internet data.

The “Free Live TV” lineup includes CNBC, MSNBC, NBC, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Channel, Fox, Fox Sports 1, NFL Network, MLB.com, Golf Channel, Bravo, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, TLC, HGTV, Food Network, CBS, Cartoon Network, Discovery Channel and a promotional channel. During football season, NFL Network Red Zone is also available on an a la carte basis for an additional $4.

“TV Flies Free is available gate-to-gate and doesn’t require users to download an app beforehand, which is how most other airlines offer streaming video. The service is simply accessed through a Web browser, though passengers need to provide their email for marketing purposes before they get to watch TV.

While watching live TV through WiFi is free, using WiFi to access the Internet or send email costs $8 per day. Southwest also offers on-demand movies for $5 per title, and smartphone users can enjoy IP-based messaging (either Apple’s iMessage or the platform-agnostic WhatsApp) for $2 per day.

Delta Air Lines

Delta uses a seat-selection technology to give passengers access to a range of free streaming content from GoGo Vision based on the class of ticket a passenger has; the pricier the ticket, the more free content is available.

“It asks you your name and where you’re sitting on the plane, and it serves up content based on where you are,” said GoGo spokesman Steve Nolan of the airborne authentication system. “The further up you are in the plane, the more likely you are to have everything free.”

To use GoGo’s straight connectivity product to surf the Web or check email, passengers must pay standard connectivity fees, which start at $16 for an all-day pass when bought on the ground (and potentially run much higher or lower when bought on-board, depending on the length of the flight).

Global Eagle Entertainment, a provider of content and digital media to airlines, said it has joined the Air China WiFi Alliance.

In addition, the company said its CEO Dave Davis has been appointed as a “Member of Council” in the alliance.

Air China is one of the largest carriers in Asia with more than 300 planes in service and is driving an innovative approach to connectivity with its partners, using the alliance to provide a seamless WiFi experience to passengers.

"It is a great honor for GEE to contribute to the accomplishment of Air China's inflight connectivity goals," Davis said in a statement. "The airline is leading the way in China with the deployment of inflight WiFi and the introduction of other new innovations that enhance the passenger experience. We are working closely with Air China to deploy inflight connectivity in the region."

Founded by Air China, the Air China WiFi Alliance (ACWA) is a committee of experts in the aviation, connectivity and passenger experience markets whose goal is to promote the development of China's inflight connectivity and passenger experience sector.

"We are very excited about the opportunities that our WiFi services will bring to our passengers as we constantly strive to improve our service offerings," said Cheng Fan, Vice President and Party Secretary of Air China, in a statement.