The Federal Communications Commission’s recent ruling to allow high-speed Internet access on airline flights cracked open a new opportunity for Colubris Networks Inc., a Waltham company that already makes wireless access points for airlines overseas.
Colubris supplies its access point to Connexion, a subsidiary of Boeing Corp. that offers wi-fi equipment to airlines. Connexion counts Lufthansa, Scandinavian Air and All Nippon Airways among its customers.
“The opportunity will be pretty strong in the United States,” says Bob Olson, a Colubris spokesman. He declined to say how many units Colubris has already shipped for overseas airlines.
Colubris makes so-called fat access points, where router functions and other necessary software intelligence is built directly into the access-point; many networks use so-called thin access points and manage their functions through a separate router. Colubris developed its product in partnership with Miltope Corp., an Alabama company that ruggedizes equipment to ensure it can meet high standards of military or commercial aviation
The FCC’s ruling is only the first step in a long process. The Federal Aviation Administration must also approve in-flight Internet access (the agency has no immediate plans to do so, although Colubris gear does pass FAA tests), and then the airlines themselves must decide whether to offer the service and buy it from Connexion.
And while many airlines might eventually offer in-flight Internet access, the customer base for Colubris itself is tiny: only Boeing and Airbus make jets.
Olson said he expects Airbus to offer in-flight wireless Internet as well in the near future. He declined to say whether Colubris and Miltope have approached the European market giant, but “In pretty much every segment of the transportation industry, we’re talking” to potential customers, he said.
Colubris, which began shipping product in 2002, also has customers such as hotels, supermarket chains and companies trying offer wi-fi hot-spot services to the public. The company has raised $21 million in funding since its inception in 2000.
