Dis-Connexion-ed

Well I'll be, Boeing are stopping their Connexion service.

Many years ago I helped start a company called Tenzing who were the pioneers in inflight email and passenger communications. We were all about narrow band and using existing hardware in the aircraft while Boeing were about their big, new and very expensive antennae. Somewhere along the line we grew from 2 to 160 people, moved from Sydney to Seattle and had big investors like Airbus. I laughed, cried and sweated blood from working so hard, having the best time of my life. Crunch time only lasted 3 years and there were many late and crazy nights coding, testing and riding scooters at breakneck speeds; jumping off ramps made from anti-static mats and beanbags over, and inevitabley into, stacks of empty watercooler bottles. Yes, we were all business in the dotcom days.

Seeing an announcement like this is a big shock as Boeing were our main competitor (and boy did they play dirty) and looked like they would be around for ever. It also brings back a lot of good and bad memories. I learnt nearly everything I know about the software development at Tenzing and I was lucky to have a good view of the amazing successes we had and the stupid mistakes we made, of which there were quite a few :)

So... what does this mean for Tenzing or OnBoard or OnAir or what ever they're called now? Mike, Hans, anyone... what's going on?