Today, a new milestone was reached when the Seamless Air Alliance issued the first-ever standard for inflight connectivity to provide safe and easily accessible Internet in the skies.

Seamless Relevance 1.0, developed in partnership with industry experts throughout Seamless Air Alliance member companies, sets up the world's only Modular Platform Connectivity Architecture.

The system allows the rapid adoption of new technology without needing customization or the replacement of equipment on the aircraft or fleet with its modular design based on open interfaces.

The Seamless Release 1.0 Standard allows airlines to retain their technological versatility, provides passengers safe, easy access and opens the door for seamless roaming with mobile network operators.

Jack Mandala, CEO of Seamless Air Alliance, said that ' Passengers who are seeking air connectivity still have ahead of structures that put pressure on airlines to find a route to fulfill these demands and achieve passengers loyalty and Seamless release 1.0 is changing the game to allow airlines to profit more quickly and cost-effectively than ever before from new capacity and innovations."

Seamless Release 1.0 provides an integrated set of unique and testable criteria to be used by airlines when designing sourcing applications. In addition to saving the airline time and money to develop these requirements, standards eliminate the risk of predicting how their system choice will be affected by future developments.

Mark Cheyney, IFEC Development Manager at Virgin Atlantic, said: "Meeting increasing expectations for connectivity in the skies is fast becoming a driving factor in airline preference. Virgin Atlantic and the Seamless Air Alliance believe that standardization will allow airlines to be more empowered and more in control of their connectivity service offerings, allowing them to meet their customers' expectations."

Sherif Bakir, CEO of Vodafone Roaming Services, added: "While in-flight connectivity is already available today, the experience of customers varies from one airline to another in terms of things like simplicity and data speeds. With rising consumer connectivity needs, this new standard is a promising first step towards a much improved and consistent in-flight customer experience."

Additional details of Seamless Release 1.0 are available in a newly published technology brief, titled Seamless Air Alliance Introduction to SR1 – A New Era of Inflight Connectivity.

The publication of the standard, which is available for any Seamless Air Alliance member to view in full, enables airlines and mobile operators to easily deploy, integrate and operate on-board networks by having a choice of different suppliers and open interfaces from where they can source modular parts, subsystems, and software. This design means multi-supplier IFC systems can be built quickly to support future technology upgrades that do not require customizations.

The Seamless Air Alliance is an open, international collaboration of airlines, technology leaders, and suppliers formed to improve the way airlines build out connectivity to support continuous innovation and allow rapid upscaling in the market.

To learn more about the Seamless Air Alliance, and how to become a member, please visit www.SeamlessAlliance.com.