Australian airline passengers can expect inflight Internet in the near future as new satellite systems provide greatly improved data streaming at reduced costs, an Inmarsat executive has predicted.
Inmarsat Asia-Pacific aviation VP Bill Peltola told The Australian that Down Under carriers are “very interested” in the UK-based company’s Global Xpress inflight connectivity service, which now has global coverage after the successful launch in August of its third satellite.
Global Xpress uses the higher-frequency Ka band to provide connection speeds of up to 50 megabits per second to aircraft, compared with the 426 kilobits per second provided by Inmarsat’s older L-band.
The system has been bought by Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines and Peltola says talks are under way with carriers in Australia.
“There’s a lot of activity going on with the Australian airlines as to what they want to do to provide connectivity, not just for passengers but also for cockpit crew, cabin crew and just the aircraft themselves,” he said.
