Chalk up another win in the quest for more consistent evaluation of inflight Wi-Fi performance. The Seamless Air Alliance officially launched its Seamless-Certified Service Quality program for connectivity service providers, establishing a set of Quality of Experience (QoE) parameters and measurement standards for the industry.
This is the industry’s most comprehensive program for ensuring that inflight connectivity service providers are held to the highest standards of quality. Seamless-Certified service providers will provide airlines with a consistent and accurate view of the inflight connectivity experience that is being delivered to passengers.
– Jack Mandala, CEO of the Seamless Air Alliance
The Seamless-Certified Quality program includes a collection of network and application test, a definition of the methodology for collecting those metrics, and a scoring system to consistently translate them into an overall passenger satisfaction score. The metrics, agreed to by airlines, service providers, and other industry stakeholders through the Seamless Air Alliance, allow for direct comparison of inflight internet experiences across vendors.
In addition, the Alliance announced Thales as its first provider partner qualified in the program. The provider can now offer performance scoring based on these metrics to its airline customer (and future customers).
The announcement follows last week’s news that ESpace Networks secured $10 million in funding to further develop its similar QoE framework and testing system. ESpace CEO Benny Rentamony previously suggested the company was open to working with industry groups on a harmonized approach, but “When we started there was no standard to work with.” Rentamony also points out that the company has already delivered its system to a commercial airline and “collected hundreds of millions of records across planes actually flying,” so it could contribute that experience.
Standards – when reasonable to implement and broadly implemented – are good for the industry. Unfortunately, the IFC world has seen some recent standards develop that proved too onerous for providers to implement economically. With hundreds of potential metrics for airlines and providers to negotiate over, that seems like a very real risk in the program.
But the Seamless-Certified Service Quality program has one provider signed, and indications that others may join. Perhaps it has avoided the worst of those issues, though it will take some time to see just how widely it ends up deployed.
More news from Aircraft Interiors Expo 2023
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- Seamless finalizes QoE metrics, certifies first partner
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- ThinKom Plus launches, with hybrid LEO/GEO offering
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- Seeking understanding in the IFC world
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