Amazon Books To Be Available Inflight

Amazon.co.uk, the UK division of the Amazon.com [NASDAQ:AMZN] online book empire, has struck a deal with British Telecommunications plc [NYSE:BTY] (BT) that will see its service available on long-haul aircraft around the world.

The deal allows the Web site service to be offered via BT’s ALIS (Airline Information System) inflight entertainment system, which forms an integral part of the international Skyphone project.

Skyphone is a digital air-to-ground transmission system that, in its first phase, has seen the installation of seatback satellite phones in business class in many of the world’s airlines this summer.

Effectively, Amazon says, Skyphone-equipped plane passengers will soon have access to the "world’s biggest Internet bookstore" from their seatbacks using the Skyphone-linked inflight entertainment (IFE) systems on a number of airlines.

BT says that airlines will be able to tailor the inflight offering to their passengers, for example by selecting a number of language-specific titles.

To avoid the high costs of constantly polling the terrestrial Web on the Skyphone-based amazon.co.uk service, BT says that the service will offer up to 100 best-selling titles on the ALIS system - using a locally cached on-plane server - for passengers to browse through in comfort.

Passengers make their selection through their seatback handset or video screen, and the order details are then automatically forwarded to Amazon.co. uk via a Skyphone-based real-time satellite link for immediate processing.

The books are then delivered to the purchaser’s nominated address through Amazon.co.uk’s global distribution network.

Alan Gill, head of BT Aeronautical said that the deal with Amazon means that ALIS can deliver a growing number of value-added services to the passengers.

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You can now add the airline seat as the latest place you can’t get away from the nearing-ubiquity technology of e-mail, thanks to Tustin, Calif.-based Airshow Inc.

The company’s new "AirshowMail," which was unveiled at the National Business Aviation Association convention in Atlanta, will let airline passengers send and receive e-mail in aircraft equipped with the service.

A big strength of the AirshowMail system, company officials said, is that the system works much like the e-mail systems businesspeople use every day. AirshowMail is also designed to adapt to higher-bandwidth technology and faster communication devices as they become available.

Airshow’s engineers were reportedly able to overcome technical difficulties associated with the narrow bandwidth restrictions and other inherent limitations of today’s airborne telephone technology. E-mail messages are compressed so that they can be transmitted in a swifter and more reliable fashion, the company said.

AirshowMail has built-in safeguards to ensure reliability and security, and messages are encrypted for privacy. The system also lets corporations send messages to planes as well as people. A server aboard a plane can be directed to automatically print out messages addressed to the plane.

AirshowMail will be available the second quarter of 2000, company officials added.

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