Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Seamless Air Alliance?
This is an Alliance to accelerate the introduction of technologies on board airplanes to enable passengers to use their connected devices (Smart phones, tablets, laptops,watches, IoT devices), in a seamless way: the passenger will board and all the devices will seamlessly connect without any login or credit cards needed, enabled through your current mobile operators platform. The goal is to create an improved passenger experience to enable the same level of connectivity they experience in their living room, now on board their flight, anywhere they fly.
What is the role of members?
Each member will bring their expertise, ideas, and experience to help advance the state of technology for the Seamless specifications or to provide their equipment or services to the ecosystem all as part of the goal of creating a better connected passenger experience.
Who is eligible to become a member?
Anyone who is committed to enabling a better connected passenger experience is invited to join.
How many members do you see in the Alliance?
The sky is the limit. We envision this Alliance setting the standard for a better connectivity experience for passengers when they fly and working with industry stakeholders who have the vision to make this happen.
What are the membership levels of the Seamless Air Alliance and corresponding benefits?
- Initial members – Airbus, Airtel, Delta, OneWeb, Sprint are all initial members of the Seamless Air Alliance and as such have a seat on the Board of Directors.
- Charter members – Full membership rights including the ability to submit candidates for Board service over time and the ability to chair working groups, Board committees, and Board subcommittees.
- Adopter members – Benefits include access to pre-release specifications and certification activities.
- Airline members – Membership level for Airlines. Benefits include the ability to participate in working groups and access to pre-release specifications and certification activities.
What are the Working Groups?
There are several Working Groups that members contribute to and lend their industry expertise to help develop new specifications and recommendations. The Working Groups focus on technical specifics such as equipment needs, billing and deployment models.
To learn more about the alliance how it works, please sign up here.
Is there a fee to be a member?
Various membership levels have fees associated with them, which will be normal to this type of non-profit organization.
For information on becoming a member please sign up here.
What does membership entail?
The Alliance will have various membership levels. Each level will come with its own set of benefits and rights.
When will the services be available from the Alliance?
The goal of the alliance is to develop specifications, not to develop go-to-market plans. Each airline and mobile operator will develop individual deployment schedules based on their company business plans in the coming years.
Will this reduce overall cost/price for passenger?
The intent of the Alliance is to dramatically increase accessibility and affordability for passengers.
Will the quality of service inside the airplane improve?
Yes, the goal of the Alliance is to deliver high speed, low latency 5G quality access inside the plane.
What would the customer experience be like on the aircraft?
Access to the network will be Seamless, meaning any enabled user device will work without any login, sign-on or other activities. The Internet experience itself will be as good as, and in many cases better than, the home experience, including low latency, high speed, and a gate-to-gate continuity of service.
When will testing start?
The Alliance is first and foremost focused on developing specifications. Third party companies developing products using those specifications may get their products tested by the Alliance and receive a certification.
How will this service be different from how passengers experience Internet service today?
Alliance members will be able to provide seamless authentication without the need to log in, simple and automatic billing, significantly faster speeds, greater bandwidth for applications like streaming movies, and lower latency for the web and interactive applications like gaming.
