The new in-flight regulations identify Earth Stations Aboard Aircraft as a licensed application of fixed-satellite service, which will allow the commission to process applications up to 50 percent faster and enhance competition.

   Earth Stations Aboard Aircraft are one of two mobile applications in the fixed-satellite service realm, with the other being vehicle-mounted earth stations that provide satellite communications with air vessels and land vehicles respectively. The FCC had previously authorized companies to offer such services only on an ad hoc basis.   

In the report, the FCC called the in-flight market an important sector of the mobile telecommunications market in the United States, “promoting the widespread availability of Internet access to aircraft passengers.

   “By means of satellite antennas mounted on the exterior of aircraft, satellites will be able to communicate with mobile devices used by passengers and crew of those aircraft,” the FCC said in the report. “The satellite antenna will carry the signal to and from the aircraft, and mobile technologies such as Wi-Fi will provide communications within the aircraft’s hull. The advancing technology has made it possible for mobile platforms to ensure antenna pointing accuracy sufficient to keep an earth station antenna focused on a satellite, while maintaining communications and preventing interference with adjacent satellites.”

   The FCC shares in-flight communications regulation duties with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).