Time - Man of the Year/Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso/moy/060892/0608200.000

Text File | 1992-09-22 | 6KB | 123 lines

                                                                                BUSINESS, Page 72

The Office Goes Airborne


Traditional airline seatbacks are about to become full-service
communications centers

By BRUCE VAN VOORST/WASHINGTON


    First it was the home. Phones, fax machines and PCs made
it impossible to leave work at the office. Then the cellular
phone made the car, even the golf course, fair game. In 1984
Airfone Inc., a GTE subsidiary, began installing telephones on
airplanes. But their old-fashioned analog circuitry, vulnerable
to interference, made many calls sound as if they came from
Mars. Moreover, plane phones were usually scarce, located either
fore or aft or shared, one to a three-seat complex, leaving
travelers a reasonable excuse for staying blissfully out of
pocket.

    Soon even this partial sanctuary will be lost. In-Flight
Phone Corp. of Oak Brook, Ill., a newcomer to the field, has
begun installing advanced digital telephone systems in each and
every seat, complete with video screens and ground data links
that will revolutionize service in the sky. Each passenger will
have a handset stowed in the armrest and a 4.5-in. by 6-in.
screen mounted in the seat ahead, just above the tray table.

    As they take their seats, passengers will find their names
and welcome aboard already on their screens. News and weather
data will scroll past as they settle in, followed by the
ineluctable buckle-up-for-safety sermon. Next will come a menu
with instructions (in four languages) on how to swipe any credit
card through the electronic reader on the handset to pay the
costs of a phone call.

    What will impress telephone users aloft most, however, is
the marked improvement in voice quality. The digital system,
which represents and transmits information in strings of 0s and
1s that ensure accuracy, also comes equipped with a built-in
computerized noise suppressor. Analog systems, which translate
sound waves captured by microphones into electronic
representations -- or analogs -- amplify the background noise
along with the voice, and wax and wane depending on atmospheric
conditions. Using digital technology, the new phones achieve
quality equal to what earthlings get calling across town, even
with the faintest signal.

    For the first time, thanks to a Federal Communications
Commission decision, passengers can receive incoming calls in
flight -- routed through a central switchboard and wordlessly
announced on the video screen so as not to disturb snoozers.
More important, passengers will be able to transmit high-quality
computer or telefax data from their seats. Travelers carrying
laptop computers need simply plug into the standard AT&T RJ-11
connector in the armrest; laptopless passengers can use the
system's built-in keypad to punch out a message, displayed on
the video screen, and send it.

    The telephone and screen at each seat will transform the
airplane armchair into a shopping and entertainment center,
granting passengers access to everything from the boss's latest
memo to computerized shopping catalogs to Nintendo. The
difference is digital. The new FCC-approved system allows for
safe and continuous operation even on takeoffs and landings. The
high-tech electronic gear on the airplanes connects to a series
of 80 ground centers scattered strategically across the U.S. and
Canada. Whereas now lengthy calls must often be redialed when
the plane leaves one area, continuous phone connections will
soon be available. Negotiations are under way to link up with
similar systems being designed in Europe and the Far East.

    Market analysts predict a huge growth in the service.
Currently some 1,700 U.S. commercial airliners carry telephones,
a number that will double by 1995. Passenger volume, hence
potential customers, will soar from 452 million to nearly 800
million by 1999. Airfone president Robert Calafell predicts a
"half a billion-dollar" industry by 1996. In addition to
In-Flight -- whose system American, USAir and Northwest have
already agreed to test -- four other companies have won fcc
approval to offer digital service. One of them is Airfone, which
is playing technological catch-up, and will go digital later
this year. Its system will be distinguished from In-Flight's by
having a small screen in the handset rather than on the
seatback. "It's a communications and entertainment profit center
for us all," says David Shipley, assistant vice president at
USAir, which is installing In-Flight in its new Boeing 757s. "If
you want to compete with the majors, you better have digital
phones."

    Passengers can only benefit from the competition.
In-Flight is proposing to undercut Airfone's $8 three-minute
tariff at $6. Spokesman Joe Hopkins of United Airlines, an
Airfone customer that plans to switch to the advanced digital
system, says, "Onboard telephone service has evolved from a
unique feature to an everyday necessity. We now hear complaints
when it's not available."

    There may be some wishful thinking in all this marketing
optimism. The rapid introduction of hi-tech doodads in the past
has often met with consumer resistance that lasts until people
figure out how the technology can actually improve their lives.
And there are plenty of traditionalists who will regret this
triumph of technology over privacy. For them, the outlook will
get steadily worse. Motorola Inc. hopes soon to begin deploying
its $3.5 billion Iridium global cellular communications system.
The Iridium network -- 77 automobile-size communications
satellites in orbits 500 miles high -- should be in place by
1997. By then, with home and hearth violated, automobile,
restaurant and airplane no longer consecrated, skiers on
Zermatt's slopes and explorers at the South Pole will be
susceptible to being overtaken by the message "The office
calling."