Inmarsat, Honeywell Aerospace and Eclipse have completed flight and lab tests of high data rate (HDR) capabilities for SwiftBroadband, an aircraft connectivity service provided through Inmarsat-4 (I-4) satellites. The companies say the new service will double inflight wi-fi speeds for commercial, government and helicopter users through an on-aircraft software upgrade.
Honeywell developed and tested HDR to increase the data speeds from Inmarsat’s L-band SwiftBroadband network over its HSD-400 and HD-710 onboard hardware. Eclipse used its Aero+ Velocity IP aggregation solution to combine four HDR channels to provide average speeds of 2.15Mbps with peak speeds of around 2.75Mbps. Together the three partners will offer a single solution.
“We are fully committed to our global L-band services and will continue to develop our technology to provide more bandwidth and better services,” said Kurt Weidemeyer, vice president, Inmarsat business and general aviation.
Inmarsat provides SwiftBroadband services to thousands of aircraft worldwide. SwiftBroadband HDR supports four new streaming rates up to the fully combined rate of 2.15Mbps, including tailored services to give users access to the configuration that most precisely meets their needs. Customers purchase only the bandwidth they need.
May 29, 2015
