Is the in-flight Wi-Fi Safe?

The fear of cyber attacks on flights is the major reason behind the Indian government’s holding back decision from allowing Wi-Fi on board aircraft.

On the other hand, private players say the security framework sought by authorities is neither impossible nor unusual.

This explains why a top officer at the civil aviation ministry, which mooted the proposal, recently expressed his frustration over the delay by the home ministry in giving its nod and compared India with North Korea.

"India is perhaps the only country other than North Korea, which does not allow in-flight Wi-Fi services. Even international airlines flying over India have to switch off Wi-Fi when they travel over India...security agencies are still not convinced," he said.

Before airlines in India can be permitted to provide Wi- Fi, the pre-requisite laid down by the government is for intercept capability to which Indian authorities have end-to- end audit and control.

"From our perspective this is not very different from what we see at many jurisdictions where cyber security or use of information technology for malicious purpose is an area of concern. The Indian government has demanded a framework at par with international standards. These are solutions that are neither unseen nor unimplemented," CEO, SITAONAIR, David Lavorel.

In order to get a firsthand experience of how Wi-Fi is enabled on a plane, PTI recently travelled onboard Honeywell's Connected Aircraft, which was in New Delhi last week as part of its world tour.

Since May this year it has travelled to Dallas, Mexico City, Panama City, Toronto, New York, London and Paris.

For in-flight Wi-Fi, Honeywell's satellite communications hardware is fitted on the aircraft so it can receive true broadband class connectivity via Inmarsat satellites, whose Global Xpress Service is powered by three Ka-band satellites and claim to provide four times the bandwidth available through Ku-band.

The hardware includes an antenna on an aircraft. Inside the aircraft there are three boxes, the size of a set-top-box, which include a KA-band frequency unit, KA-band aircraft network data unit and a modem manager.

"No one can hack into this network unless you are given access to this frequency. As far as the boxes are concerned no one can tap into them because there are security communication protocols. However, concerns emerge when you have access to Internet," explains Inmarsat's Director, Airline Market Development for India, Middle East and Africa, Rash Jhanjee.

Connectivity inside an aircraft can also be provided through air-to-ground communications network, which is more suitable for high-density domestic market. However, experts say India does not currently have such a facility.

"Air-to-ground and satellite connectivity for aircraft complement each other. In certain high density markets where there are single-aisle narrow body aircraft which fly on shorter routes, it makes more economic sense to deploy an air-to-ground network because these cost less and weigh less," Jhanjee told PTI.

Satellite communications however offer bandwidth speeds that are consistently higher on a global level. Additionally, the satellite equipment is well proven and designed to fit on a variety of aircraft, while air-to-ground system is more suited for narrow bodies, Jhanjee added.

Both Inmarsat and SITAONAIR have been in discussions with various government ministries, which include those of civil aviation, home as well as the department of telecom.