According to recent In-Stat (News - Alert) findings, airlines are doing a great job providing in-flight broadband. In its recent report, In-Stat has revealed that the total in-flight broadband equipment investment is set to touch half a billion dollars globally by 2013. In-flight Wi-Fi deployments are way past their testing phase. Over 2,000 airplanes are expected to be equipped with Wi-Fi by the end of 2010., said officials at In-Stat.

"In-flight broadband service roll-outs by airlines is not without issues though," says Frank Dickson. "With current paid take rates for in-flight Wi-Fi service below 2 percent, providers have a lot of work to entice passengers to use the service. Significant investment has been made in on-board and on-ground infrastructure, and now the market will be tested as it tries to get more passengers to use the service."

Airlines that have reported offering or testing in-flight broadband or live TV include Air Asia, Air AsiaX, Air Blue, Air Canada, Air France, AirTran, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, British Midlands Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Jazeera Airways, JetBlue, Kingfisher Airlines, Northwest, Oman Air, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, Ryanair, Shenzhen Airlines, Southwest, TAM Airlines, TAP Portugal, United Airlines , US Airways, Virgin America, and Wataniya Airways. In-Stat expects that the service revenue from in-flight broadband to touch $95 million in 2010.

Through its recent research In-Stat has also tried to assess the market for next generation in-flight entertainment (IFE) on parameters such as market potential, usage, business models, and competitive analysis for the in-flight broadband market. Next generation IFE services are segmented by access technology (GSM, satellite, air-to-ground) as well as application (voice, video, and data).