Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (00:09):
Welcome to our special webinar on the need for speed and connectivity. Now, there's an opportunity for mobile network operators to move beyond connecting aviation and towards an aviation as a service model. But how should MNOs move beyond connectivity as a commodity? Where could programmable networks and network APIs create new value for aviation enterprises? And what are the requirements to make these use cases scalable?

Natasha Nayak, GSMA Fusion (00:43):
So GSMA Fusion is the demand engine for GSMA Open Gateway. GSMA Open Gateway has set up an entire platform for interoperable standardised network APIs through which network operators expose their capabilities to the rest of the world. And GSMA Fusion is what works with the enterprises. So it's the outside-in approach.

Will King, IDEMIA Travel and Transport (01:09):
Passenger volumes are rising. IATA tell us that by 2050 they're going to double. We're seeing over 3% year-on-year growth, higher in certain regions. And this just creates a very real physical problem. If your numbers are doubling, how do you process that many people? You can't just deploy more gates - where are they going to go? You can't just deploy more border guard staff because who's going to pay for them?

Jack Mandala, Seamless Air Alliance (01:33):
In flight, we're seeing both more users and more data, right? So more users. In the past, five years ago, you would see 10% of passengers connecting on board. Now with the advent of better connectivity, we're seeing those numbers 40% and greater.

Khalil El-Boji, Orange (01:53):
Regarding a data maintenance flow or maybe a critical mission communication, all this will correlate on the same network, but they will not have the same usage and will not have the same priority. That's why now airports and aviation need more and more connectivity.

Will King, IDEMIA Travel and Transport (02:14):
A smart lane where people just walk through. This is coming. These are being deployed right now. What it means is a border guard who has spent the last 20 years in a glass booth stamping passports, that's what they've been doing for 20 years, suddenly they're standing in the flow of people holding an iPad, wearing smart glasses, whatever it may be, to identify who they need to intercept, who they need to interview, who they need to talk to. That's a massive change operationally, but from the network perspective, it is an absolutely enormous change.

Jack Mandala, Seamless Air Alliance (02:43):
When an airline makes a decision finally to go with the service provider, they're taking the aircraft out of service. They're installing proprietary gear on that aircraft, and it's a huge expense. So even if there's no contractual lock-in between the airline and the satellite service provider, there's sort of this inherent lock-in because they've gone off and made a huge investment of time and money.

Will King, IDEMIA Travel and Transport (03:14):
The mission-critical systems cannot fail. So from my lens, we're talking about things like border control. They cannot fail. This is a mission-critical system. Senior ministers and MPs will lose their job. It will dominate the news cycle for days to come. There's national pride, there's hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. The border has to continue operating.

Khalil El-Boji, Orange (03:37):
It's the standardisation. As aviation is global, the developer does not need to integrate with each company as operators in each country. So we need to have the same aggregate information. And this is exactly the role of GSMA Open Gateway.

Will King, IDEMIA Travel and Transport (03:58):
Trust. I think we need to reach a point where the MNO network for critical services in the airport is as trusted as physical infrastructure, and that is the bedrock that everything else is built on. So anything we can do to reinforce that is critical.

Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (04:13):
GSMA Fusion is bringing together aviation enterprises and mobile operators to identify and articulate these requirements, turning industry demand into actionable opportunities for the whole ecosystem. And if you would like further information on this topic, then just please follow the links below the video.