ONBOARD ENTERTAINMENT
Momentum for Aeromobile
AIX '14 The use of mobile phones inflight
went up by 80% in 2013, according to a survey conducted by telecoms network operator Aeromobile. Around 80% of the usage is text and
data, said Kevin Rogers, ceo: "As a rule, more people are using their phones rather than wifi because the quality on a GSM enabled aircraft is good and it is easy to use." Aeromobile is a standalone subsidiary of Panasonic Avionics, and its service constitutes the X Phone part of Panasonic's GCS platform, which also includes X Connect and Live TV. "Aeromobile's reason for being is to increase usage in a connected aircraft," said Rogers. We have 250 roaming agreements with network operators around the world. We get our revenue from the roaming charges. We are installed on 200 aircraft flying with 11 airlines, including Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, Etihad, SAS, Transaero, and Thai Airways.
Lufthansa Technik speeds BoardConnect
AIX '14 Awarded the Crystal Cabin Award for Passenger Comfort Systems for its acWAP router, Lufthansa Technik now has the hardware to go with its BoardConnect software IFE system. "The new ac WLAN standard is four times faster than the current 'n' standard, and the new WAP's compliance with the ARINC standard means that it is interchangeable with existing units," said Frank Niss, of Lufthansa Technik. "It is going to be installed on 10 Lufthansa aircraft by June, and a total
“Roaming prices are coming down
all the time.” Kevin Rogers, ceo Aeromobile
That is going to increase to 300 in the next 12 months. “There is a lot of momentum in the
market and the order book is strong. There is plenty of room for growth in the Middle East and SE Asia and the product is made more attractive by the fact that roaming prices are coming down thanks to the reducing costs of operating satellites." Rogers argues for choice regarding inflight phone usage and said: "The FCC have started a proceeding possibly
of 20 by August this year. On the A321 aircraft with about 200 passengers we are putting in four acWAPs, but in my opinion, we only need three," he added The BoardConnect system is installed on Lufthansa aircraft and runs on two 600Mb SSD drives to provide films, music, games, shopping, a moving map and potential internet access. There is a 3G modem for gate updates of news and magazines.
El Al also use the BoardConnect system and has an agreement with Viasat to provide wifi. It is installing the system on 10 737-700, 737-800 and 737-900 aircraft. Peter Reynolds of ViaSat said: “We own three satellites in the US and have an
leading to a change in the regulations to allow phone use inflight, expected next year. However the Department of Transportation wants to ban phone voice calls on GSM or Skype. Our position on this is to let the airline choose: Lufthansa and Aer Lingus, for example, have chosen not to allow voice calls - it's up to them. “What I would say is that of the 400 flights
a day we serve, 30 or 40 are going to the US. Ironically Americans are power users of the service, but they cannot at the moment do it in their own airspace."
Aeromobile.net
arrangement with Eutelsat in Europe. The equipment is designed and built by us so we can offer more bandwidth at lower prices than traditional satellites. Our system will deliver 12Mb/sec to everyone on the aircraft, which will get BoardConnect working the way it should be.”
Lufthansa-technik.com;
Viasat.com
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