Apigee manages, monitors and optimizes mobile application programming interfaces (APIs), which act as the glue connecting technologies, services and data sources across networks. So far Apigee has focused on the mobile industry, attempting to whip into shape the different network APIs used by hundreds of different carriers and present them to developers as a simple common interface.

Now Apigee plans to go after other industries such as healthcare and the airlines. Those industries have a lot of useful information, from frequent flier miles to health records, that developers would love to access if only it weren’t so fragmented. On Thursday Apigee announced what it’s calling the API Exchange, which essentially takes the model it’s devised for telecom and applies it to any other industry.

Healthcare companies and airlines actually have a lot in common in mobile carriers, said David Andrzejek, who heads up the Exchange for Apigee. Their industries are highly regulated and dominated by multiple, very large, vertically integrated companies using proprietary technology that is unfathomable to all but the most committed developer. “The barriers are normally just too high for any developer to build anything against,” Andrzejek said.

For the mobile carriers, the problem has always been that developers couldn’t just tap into a single API to use their location, presence or payment services – developers have to tap into the separate APIs of hundreds of carriers around the world. Consequently no developer wanted to deal with carriers, further marginalizing them. The mobile industry spent years trying to develop a common set of APIs that would present a unified front to the developer world. They failed spectacularly.

When Apigee took over the GSM Association’s OneAPI program, it pretty much gave up on the dream of standardizing under a single set of carrier APIs (which makes the program’s name a bit outdated). Instead, Apigee took to connecting all of the carriers’ different APIs to a single platform and then translating them into a single meta-interface that any developer could hook into. At Mobile World Congress this year, Apigee and the GSMA presented the initial fruits of that labor: an identity-management API any app developer could use to authenticate users via their phone numbers.

It’s still early days for the OneAPI project, but Apigee feels it’s learned enough dealing with the fickle mobile carriers to take on other big complex industries. Just like the carriers, airlines and insurance companies haven’t standardized under any common APIs, and for competitive reasons they’re unlikely to do so.

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Since launching in 2009, GateGuru has won over nearly one million air travelers with its detailed information on the restaurants, shops and other amenities inside airport terminals. But with with its newest release, the New York-based startup hopes to establish its app as not just an in-airport guide but a comprehensive day-of-travel service.

Over the past few years, the app has added other features, including security line wait times and flight delay updates. But Dan Gellert, the company’s founder, said releasing GateGuru 3.0 is like taking the beta wraps off and launching the product they always had in mind.

“Mobile is the future of travel, but yet there was no resource to serve as an end-to-end solution for the traveler,” he said. “We wanted to change that, and by doing so, reinvent the day-of travel… from the minute you walk out your door to the minute you get to your destination.”

The new app’s car rental-booking feature, in particular, is sure to attract the attention of new travelers. Through a partnership with Avis-Budget Group, GateGuru users can now use the app to check for last-minute rentals at their destination, while they’re taxiing on the runway. If they book a car — at rates which could be 5 to 25 percent below normal prices – GateGuru gets a revenue share of the transaction. (Until now, the company has made money by licensing its airport amenity database to other travel companies.)

The Hotel Tonight-like feature gives car rental companies a way to dynamically communicate inventory levels and offer day-of discounts that they might not have been willing to give any earlier.  Although the company is starting with car rentals, Gellert said other travel supply verticals, including hotels, could be added next year.

Additionally, users can now forward their itineraries to plans@gateguruapp.com to have all of their flight information ported into the GateGuru app. Once the company has that data, it uses its proprietary matching technology to pull up all of the corresponding in-airport information.

On the day of travel, users can just open up the app to get all the relevant information they need — from terminal-specific tips about restaurants and other amenities to gate and departure updates to security line wait times. (Previously, users could integrate their Tripit or Kayak accounts with GateGuru to access their itineraries through the app, but the new itinerary feature simplifies that process.) Longtime users of the app will also notice a different, more personalized user interface, which the company said is the product of two years of tinkering.

Gellert also said that while it currently gets security wait line data from app users, it’s working with the Transportation Security Administration to access historical wait time data for predictive modeling.

Leading travel app Tripit (now owned by Concur), as well as others, also help air passengers organize their itineraries and travel plans. But in a crowded universe of travel apps, GateGuru, which has raised $1.3 million, has already established a strong brand with its database of airport amenity information. Its newest features will likely only make it more of a go-to travel companion for airline passengers.

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In short, Sprint thinks that hotels, rental car agencies, airlines, supermarkets and big box retail stores – pretty much any business with a loyalty card – would make excellent resellers of its 3G and WiMAX data service. Hotels could rent or lend 4G data modems to their out-of-town guests; grocery stores could sell prepaid 3G hotspots right next to the batteries and the international dialing cards. Those data services could be linked directly to any loyalty program – for instance, for every megabyte you consume earn a frequent flyer mile or get 10 cents off your next purchase of frogurt.

Sprint is inviting these companies to become mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) on its data networks, offering a compelling proposition to companies that normally wouldn’t have a clue how to run a wireless business:  Sprint will deploy all of the infrastructure and manage the service, while its partners focus on their customers.

Photo by Tomás Fano

Such MVNOs could work much the way the hotel, airport and airline Wi-Fi services function: access to a key set of company Website functions might be free, but customers would buy access to the Internet at large by the hour, day, week or bucket. Companies would also have the opportunity to toy with those business models, for instance subsidizing access fees with advertising and sponsorship revenues or allowing customers who accrue a certain number of flight miles, hotel stays or grocery to tap into free buckets of megabytes.

The new program is part of the “MVNO in a box” platform Sprint launched in July. Traditionally MVNOs have pretty much supplied all of the components necessary to run a mobile operator – devices, back office and billing, customer service, etc. – save the actually mobile network. That means MVNOs have commonly been the purview of companies with the experience and infrastructure necessary to run a carrier or companies like Best Buy willing to invest in those resources.

Sprint’s new single source platform, however, is geared at anyone with a customer base and a Website. Sprint is contracting with Telespree to handle the activation and management of potentially millions of subscriptions spread over dozens of different brands through its cloud-based wireless data enablement platform.

So far Sprint is making its WiMAX and CDMA networks available through the program, so its biggest impact may be regional. Sprint is an MVNO of sorts itself, reselling Clearwire’s WiMAX service, which is available in about one-third of the US. Its CDMA EV-DO network, however, probably doesn’t have the oomph to stand in as a primary mobile broadband service. Once Sprint completes the rollout of its LTE network, though, it will probably start offering it up to its MVNO partners. Many operators are keeping their newest networks close to their vests, but Sprint has already allowed MVNOs like Ting to tap into its nascent LTE systems.

 Hotel sign image courtesy of Flickr user Tomas Fano 

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FierceWireless’ Mike Dano dug up the FCC filings and wrote an excellent, detailed report you can find here. Here’s a summary of the major points:

• The proposed network, which Qualcomm is calling Next-Gen AG, would make use of 500 MHz of spectrum in the 14 GHz band. That’s a huge amount – more than all of the nationwide bandwidth  available to the entire U.S. cellular industry today – but at such high frequencies, available airwaves are plentiful. The problem is they’re useless for ground-based cellular networks since those airwaves require enormous power to propagate any reasonable distance. Your phone doesn’t have the juice to communicate with a distant tower at higher frequencies, but an airplane does.
• While the Next Gen-AG’s huge carrier bandwidths would allow theoretical speeds of 300 Gbps, you have to remember that the cellular network is shared capacity. Qualcomm proposes that only 150 towers anchored to the earth would be necessary, compared to the tens of thousands required for a terrestrial network. A single cell’s 300 gigs of capacity would be shared by hundreds of airplanes at any given moment, and airlines would then further subdivide that capacity. For instance, they could use the network to offer on-demand entertainment to each seat and sell bandwidth to individual passengers via Wi-Fi.
• That still leaves a lot of capacity for each plane. Right now in-flight connectivity services like Gogo utilize CDMA 3G carriers of 3 MHz in size. That’s a decent data connection for a single laptop or smartphone, but not for hundreds. The new network would use wideband OFDMA technologies similar to the TD-LTE networks Clearwire and Sprint plan to build. Basically, Qualcomm wants to replace the 3G and satellite networks linking airplanes today with 4G networks on steroids.

It sounds like a great idea, but the question as to whether passengers on airplanes want access to such awesome bandwidth – or are at least willing to pay for it. According to USA Today, in-flight Wi-Fi use is increasing gradually, but it’s hardly blowing up. Business travelers are choosing to relax on flights rather than remain in constant contact with their companies. The $10 to $15 cost of a Wi-Fi link for a single leg can also be a turn off.

Still, perceptions could change as more connected entertainment devices like tablets are sold. A business traveler may want to sign out of e-mail, but he might not feel the same about his cloud-based music library or movie connection. And ultra-high-capacity networks like Next-Gen AG could drive in-flight connection costs down considerably due to its massive economies of scale.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user davipt

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A new Qantas trial pilot program will see one of the airline’s Boeing 767-300 jets outfitted with one iPad 2 for each passenger, according to the Australian Business Traveller. Each of the aircraft’s 254 seats will have its own iPad 2, and there will also be several spares kept on hand just in case. All seats pockets will carry an iPad 2, but business-class travelers will also get a flexible stand to use with their fold-out meal tray.

The iPads won’t be tethered to seats, but they will carry a software theft deterrent of sorts: Each boots directly into and only has access to Qantas’ proprietary Q Streaming app, which provides access to its in-flight entertainment library over Wi-Fi but which is also rendered useless upon leaving the plane.

The pilot program is about testing Qantas’ in-flight Wi-Fi streaming capabilities, Qantas Executive Manager for Customer Experience Alison Webster told the ABT. The ultimate goal is to be able to provide passengers with access to the Q Streaming service through their own devices, be they Apple’s iPads and iPhones or Android tablets and handsets.

If the initial test proves a success, Qantas plans to expand it to ten Boeing 767-300 jets, complete with iPad brackets installed in seat backs. Passengers who opt to use their own devices will also have the option of downloading a video to watch within 24 hours of leaving a plane, should they land before they finish their show or movie.

With iPads in the cockpit and iPads in the cabin, the air travel industry is becoming a perfect use case of how Apple’s devices appeal to companies for both consumer-facing and internal business use. Let’s hope Qantas’ example catches on here in North America and in the rest of the world, too. That shouldn’t be too tall of an order, since Q Streaming is based on the same technology that powers Virgin America’s just-announced in-flight entertainment system.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Katy Pearce

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Virgin is going to upgrade the current Red in-flight entertainment system with help from a product built by Lufthansa, the airline said on Tuesday at an industry conference in Seattle. The new system will be “entirely interactive, connective and entertaining” and will “have content and services offered both via the seat-back system and guests’ personal electronic devices,” according to Virgin. The announcement is low on specifics, but it adds that there will be an option for passengers to connect their own devices to this new in-flight platform.

It does sound like the seat-back systems will be connected to the web but in a limited fashion. A company spokesperson said there should be “some Wi-Fi connectivity” in the seat-back system, including access to social media apps — which, if we had to guess, sounds like it could include at least the ability to check Facebook and/or Twitter from your seat back but maybe not free access to any website.

The airline says that the Wi-Fi option available to passengers who bring their own Wi-Fi-ready gadgets is already popular and “regularly sees up to one-third of guests on flights logged on.” And that’s a service they have to pay for. So it stands to reason that plenty of people will be interested in logging on, even if it’s limited, and especially if it’s free.

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So viva the in-flight Wi-Fi indicators, and let’s get JetBlue on board with this trend. Also, for those who travel often and have a Boingo subscription, check out their deal with GoGo Internet. Now on flights offered by American Airlines, Delta, Alaska Airlines, U.S. Airways and others, Boingo users can get online using their Boingo log in, though they can’t pay Boingo prices. In-flight Wi-Fi is still a luxury item, it seems.

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While the phone could have been built on Android simply for voice calling features, it’s interesting that Aircell is dubbing the device a smartphone. By using Google’s mobile platform, combined with the company’s Gogo Internet service, Aircell could develop or license value-add applications and services to boost revenues.

Travelers who didn’t pack a mobile device or don’t want to use a full laptop, for example, could check their Gmail on the handset’s 3.8-inch screen for a small fee. Reading an e-book, playing Angry Birds or a myriad of other smartphone activities should be easily accessible as well. And of course, the handset can be used for traditional voice calls, although I’m not sold on the idea that nearby passengers will appreciate long conversations from the sky; our first test of a video/voice chat on Gogo’s service in 2009 was met with plenty of commentary to that effect.

Those who disapprove of in-flight voice calls don’t have to worry just yet. Aircell doesn’t expect the new smartphone to launch until late 2011, and it’s going to take time to retrofit or add the device into aircraft. Plus the company is still working out its GoGo Biz Voice service that the handset will use in order to provide high-quality, low latency voice calls. That gives developers more time to consider the type of apps that would most appeal to consumers sitting in uncomfortable seats eating generally unappealing and hard-to-identify food. Maybe that’s the first app we’ll see: one that answers the question of “what am I really eating?”

Image courtesy of Flickr user sadsnaps.

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