Originally Posted by
yankees368
It hasn't been launched commercially because BA is the sole airline signed up to use the system and it hasn't launched it yet. I think it's safe to assume that if it isn't even in a beta trial at this point that there's some sort of technical issue slowing things down for now.
Yes, and the reason why BA hasn't launched it yet is because it hasn't been launched
There's been talk of other airlines being interested and none of them have come out of the woodwork yet because it is all hinging on the service launching commercially with *someone*, which in this case is IAG (BA). Deutsche Telekom seemed to declare the network "ready" when they had done their bit, which is when they had their ground stations ready - themselves being delayed already. I always found that highly aggressive considering that there was a satellite element to it as well (outside of Deutsche Telekom's responsibility), and if you read between the lines every statement saying the EAN was "ready" referred to sometimes theoretical system trials, not actual trials with all the physical elements actually in place. So the technical side is certainly on element in the delays.
The other is the legal challenges - as much as everyone was adamant that they wouldn't lead to delays, there clearly are delays. So that could be another aspect to this.