AirCell Inc., the closely held company that plans to offer Internet service on commercial flights, has hired former Sprint Corp. president Ronald LeMay as its chairman.
LeMay’s arrival in the coming months is part of a “post- auction restructuring,” Louisville-based AirCell said Monday in an e-mailed statement. The company last week won a Federal Communications Commission auction of airwaves.
LeMay is a partner at Ripplewood Holdings LLC, the New York buyout firm that teamed with AirCell to bid $31.3 million for the rights and will become a “major new investor,” AirCell said.
The company is preparing to offer wireless data service in mid-2007, AirCell president Jack Blumenstein said. Mobile-phone service will be offered later, if approved by U.S. regulators.
AirCell will install wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, “hot spots” on airplanes flying domestic U.S. routes, allowing passengers to surf the Web using laptop computers or hand-held devices.
