Aircell may become a familiar name early in 2008 when the Itasca company introduces wireless Internet on airliners as the sole North American provider of the service.

While it’s heretofore been a costly luxury on a limited number of international commercial flights, the service may soon be regarded by travelers as a standard service.

“Let’s look at it this way, 750 million continental travelers at $10 a person; that is more than $7 billion,” said Jack Blumenstein, CEO of Aircell, as he cited the potential of his company.

It may seem like a lofty goal, but the company has been granted an exclusive contract by both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to offer Wi-Fi services on U.S. continental flights.

With no apparent competition, Aircell’s potential for huge earnings may well become reality.

Its Wi-Fi service is set to launch on March 8, 2008 or, as Blumenstein noted, only 180 days from the date of this interview.

“The number keeps getting smaller,” he said, referring to a calendar that the company has in its board room which serves as a countdown to the launch date.

The service will cover coast-to-coast flights in the U.S., and eventually Canada and Mexico.

American Airlines is the only carrier currently signed on, but Blumenstein said that his company is in talks with many more and that the roster could expand before March 8.

Blumenstein can talk for hours about the aviation business and becomes very excited when speaking about the potential future of his industry, especially with cellular technology.

The company opened an office in the area because of the local telecom talent pool with big name providers deeply rooted within the area. The offices look like a command center of sorts, from which Aircell will be able to track all its carriers.

“We are on a mission that will profoundly change this little company in Itasca,” said Blumenstein. “It’s mind-boggling. This will change the way that people look at flights in general.”

Aircell began in Louisville, Colo., as a business aviation sales company, specializing in communications. In the early 1990s Blumenstein, then an investor living in Chicago, learned of the firm and decided to make it his next venture.

Aircell had found a niche in providing cell phone connection for private jets. It grew steadily but then came 9/11 and the huge downturn in the aviation industry.

“At that point we were holding on by our fingernails,” said Blumenstein. “It was either we let it close or get more involved.”

The board decided to invest an additional $500,000 into the company to see if it could be salvaged. The gamble soon paid off as Aircell climbed back from the depths and began to produce at an even greater rate than before.

“We went from a low point to become the world leader in our industry,” Blumenstein said. “We ship more products than all of our competitors combined.”

Aircell was growing at a steady 15 percent a year when the company decided to look into using its technology to provide Wi-Fi for airline passengers.

Boeing had offered Wi-Fi its other to passengers in the past with its satellite service on international flights, but while the connection and service was fine, it proved to be too costly an undertaking.

“The satellite system was costly and heavy,” said Blumenstein. “The system required an 800-lb. antenna and it cost about $1 million to install on each aircraft. The installment process also kept planes grounded for 10 days to a month.”

The potential dollars being lost were too much to bear and Boeing dropped the project. The cost to travelers for use of the system was $29.95 for a flight.

Aircell’s system is less costly for the airlines and travelers alike.

Instead of using satellite technology, the firm uses cellular technology, or ground to air. The company has a system of 100 cell towers that will point to the sky, rather than to the ground as is traditional for cell phone users. With the tower focused on the sky, it can cover an area of 250 miles, making it possible to secure the entire coast-to-coast connection with only 100 towers dotted across the U.S. landscape.

Since Aircell owns all of the towers it operates, it will officially have the largest footprint of any cellular provider in the country, said Blumenstein.

The antenna that airlines need to use for this procedure is merely the size of a soda can and the installation can be done overnight. The cost per plane will be around $100,000 and the cost per customer will be $10 a session.

It will be essentially a plug-and-play environment, much like most Wi-Fi hotspots today in cafes and restaurants. The user’s laptop will find the connection and will be directed to a log-in site. There the financial transaction can be made and the user will be surfing the net as efficiently as in any current Wi-Fi hotspot.

The only limitation for this service is that it cannot extend to flights that cross large bodies of water. The Boeing system could do this, because it used satellites, but the ground-based power source will not extend more than a few hundred miles out to sea. It will also not be available at altitudes below 10,000 feet, per standard FAA procedure for all electronic devices.

Even though Aircell had the product development in mind, it still did not have any contracts or rights to sell it. It had to lobby to the FCC and FAA to allow airlines to provide these services for the U.S. market.

Once it began its lobbying mission, other companies joined on, including Boeing, said Blumenstein.

Eventually the FCC and FAA decided to grant this capability, but rather than making it a competitive market, the regulation entities decided to allow only a sole provider which would be selected through an auction process.

“We thought it was over then,” said Blumenstein. “Here we were, we started this movement, and now one of the bigger companies with deeper pockets was going to come in and simply outbid us.”

Blumenstein and his fellow executives did their best to develop as many resources as they could from private investment companies, but it was still short of what the big providers could afford. Somewhat dejected, Aircell entered the auction process with dim hope.

However, on the third day of the auction, nationwide provider Verizon dropped out for unknown reasons, said Blumenstein.

“It wasn’t over on that day, but we knew then that we could compete with the other companies in the auction,” he said. “We eventually got a 10-year contract for $31.7 million.”

After the contract was awarded, Aircell began assembling a team of experts, many from Boeing’s previous attempts at air Wi-Fi, to prepare the product in Itasca.

American Airlines is the only company to sign on so far, but if the product becomes as popular as predicted, there should be more, said Blumenstein.

And while this convenience will have an obvious appeal to business travelers, market research shows that leisure travelers are just as excited about the project.

“This could be revolutionary,” Blumenstein said. “This will have a huge impact on so many people. Now people will have the ability to stay in control of their life while flying.”