Consumption upgrades in the sky: the aviation Internet has entered a critical point of outbreak

21st Century Business Herald reporter Bai Yang reported from Beijing

According to the statistics of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, in 2019, when the new crown epidemic has not yet broken out, the civil aviation industry has transported 659 million passengers throughout the year, and the total flight time of airlines is 12.3113 million hours.

However, during the long flight, almost all passengers were in a "missing" state. In today's world where the Internet is highly infiltrated into people's lives, 24-hour "online" has become the norm for the vast majority of people, and there are more insecurities in addition to hours of isolation, boredom, and more insecurity.

In 2018, the Civil Aviation Administration of China issued the Guidelines for the Evaluation of the Use of Portable Electronic Devices (ED) on Board of Aircraft, which officially kicked off the use of portable electronic devices, including mobile phones, etc. on aircraft. But today, on more than 90% of flights, there is still no network connection after the mobile phone is turned on.

According to the data, as of the end of 2020, There are 64 transport airlines and 3903 transport aircraft in China, of which only 654 aircraft of 20 airlines can provide cabin network services for passengers, while only 213 aircraft of 11 airlines have the ability to access the Internet in the air, accounting for about 5.4%.

However, whether wiFi can be popularized in the air is not determined by the aviation industry alone. Xie Ying, an expert in the expert database of the Civil Aviation Administration, told 21st Century Business Herald that the aviation Internet is a cross-border thing, in addition to the aviation circle, it also involves the fields of communication and the Internet. Therefore, the development progress of each link in the industrial chain and whether multi-party collaboration can be achieved will determine the promotion of in-flight WiFi.

Happily, at the policy level, the authorities have sent a positive signal. In May this year, the Civil Aviation Administration issued a task list of "I do practical things for the masses", one of which is "promoting aircraft cabin wireless network services".

<h4>The ATG scheme becomes the optimal solution</h4>

Of course, in order to achieve in-flight WiFi, the first problem to be solved is where the network comes from. At present, there are two main technical solutions in the industry:

One is the satellite communication program, the technology is based on the satellite as a relay, the ground station to transmit information to the satellite, the satellite receives and then forwards to the aircraft; the second is the air-to-ground (ATG) program, mainly in the ground to build a special base station that can cover the sky, to build a ground-to-air stereoscopic coverage of the private network, so as to carry out ground-to-air high-speed data transmission.

Yan Maosheng, general manager of China Mobile's transportation industry, told 21st Century Business Herald that the earliest use of satellite communication solutions in the aviation Internet is because the traditional ground communication base station cannot cover a height of 10,000 meters.

Later, with the advancement of communication technology, ATG programs began to appear in some countries with relatively large land areas, relatively long domestic routes, and ground network construction conditions. Compared with satellite communication solutions, ATG solutions have wider spectrum resources and are more cost-effective.

For example, in terms of transformation, the transformation of ATG includes two parts: one is the base station, and the other is the aircraft. According to Xie Ying, the base station transformation is mainly to use the existing base station resources to install a set of equipment specifically for low-altitude communications, while the aircraft transformation is to install antennas in the abdomen of the aircraft, internal installation of receiving equipment, etc. "In terms of overall input costs, ATG is much lower than the use of satellite communication solutions."

For example, in terms of network experience, if you use satellite networks to play Glory of kings on the plane, the game delay will be seven or eight hundred milliseconds, and if you use the 5G ATG network, the delay problem will be basically eliminated.

At present, China's ATG program is still in the pilot stage. Yan Maosheng said that from 2014 to 2017, China Mobile deployed 52 4G ATG base stations on the ground of three routes: Beijing-Rong, Beijing-Shanghai and Beijing-Guangzhou to carry out Internet verification. Later, after the 5G license was issued, China Mobile began to promote the construction of 5G ATG, and last year, China Mobile also cooperated with COMAC to conduct the first flight test of 5G ATG in Dongying, Shandong.

Of course, the ATG program also has some drawbacks, such as for international routes, global networking through satellite programs is obviously more convenient than ATG solutions. But for domestic routes, if the 5G ATG network can be built, it will be the best solution to meet the needs of in-flight Internet access.

In September this year, the State Radio Office issued the Notice on Matters Related to Strengthening radio management of ground-to-air mobile communication (ATG) services, proposing that units shall not use relevant radio frequencies to carry out ATG services without the permission of the National Radio Regulatory Agency.

In the industry's view, the release of the Notice, on the one hand, strengthens supervision, and in a sense, it also opens up the application process for the formal approval of the ATG program, which was previously missing in the industry.

Xie Ying said that from a technical level, the technology of 5G ATG has been fully mature, and after passing the approval of the relevant departments, it should be able to be rapidly promoted.

<h4>The last piece of "virgin land"</h4>

A number of industry insiders interviewed told 21st Century Business Herald that under the impetus of many factors such as favorable policies and mature technology, the aviation Internet is about to usher in a flashpoint. He Zhigang, deputy general manager of AVIC Media, believes that 2022 is likely to be a year of rapid fermentation of the aviation Internet.

In this context, some Internet companies have also begun to go down and join the aviation Internet track. In May 2020, Tencent, HNA, Donica and other companies jointly established Feixiang Internet Aviation Technology (Hainan) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Feixiang Internet").

According to Liu Boheng, chairman of Feixiang Internet, Feixiang Internet has signed a contract with HNA for the overall operation rights of 650 aircraft for 15 years, and since June 16 this year, Feixiang Internet has completed the LAN installation of nearly 47 aircraft, and the Internet transformation of 28 wide-body aircraft is underway.

Liu Boheng said that it is expected that by the end of this year, the transformation of 100-119 aircraft can be completed, and in the next three years, all 650 aircraft will be transformed.

Before the official admission, Feixiang Internet had conducted a demand survey on the aviation Internet. According to the data, 98% of the surveyed users said they needed on-board WiFi, and 86% of users said that if the flight had WiFi, they would prefer this flight.

Not only that, but users are also very willing to pay for in-flight WiFi. Liu Boheng told 21st Century Business Herald, "Before doing research, we thought that most passengers would think that on-board WiFi should be free, but the survey results showed that 63.1% of passengers thought that on-board WiFi needed to be paid." ”

However, whether the in-flight WiFi is paid or free ultimately requires individual airlines to make their own decisions, because no matter which technology solution is chosen, the cost behind it is very large.

At the same time, the commercial value behind the aviation Internet cannot be ignored. Cai Chaoyang, chairman of Doñica Avionics, took advertising as an example and said that an airport with a throughput of 20 million, the overall bidding amount of advertising is about 100 million, according to the human effect of traffic exposure, that in the cabin, 660 million passengers will correspond to the advertising value will be billions, not to mention that in the cabin, the effective reach rate of advertising is higher.

On the aircraft completed by the transformation of Feixiang Interconnection, in addition to modules such as entertainment and cabin service, e-commerce modules have also been added. Users can select goods on the aircraft mall through the on-board entertainment system or mobile phone on the plane, and the LAN can also pay through offline payment, and then the goods will be mailed home after getting off the plane.

At present, China's coverage rate of aviation Internet is far lower than the world average, but the demand for mobile Internet use is much higher than that of other countries, and this imbalance between supply and demand has also brought great room for growth to China's aviation Internet.

Liu Boheng said that the airline cabin is the entrance to the entire aviation Internet, and it is also the last "virgin land" that has not been able to connect to the Internet. In the face of some people with the highest net worth in China, the aviation Internet is exclusive in time and space, so it will also become a must for consumption upgrading.

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