ARINC Completes Integration and Testing of New Feature-Rich Broadband on First Boeing

[Gerald A]

Annapolis, Maryland—ARINC Incorporated today announced it has completed the first integration and testing of eXchangeTM with Service by SKYLinkSM on a Boeing Business Jet (BBJ), the world’s largest production business jet.

The installation combines Rockwell Collins’ eXchange satellite broadband avionics with ARINC’s SKYLink Ku-band satellite service, and adds several in-flight communications features not available elsewhere.

“The customer for this jet ordered “the best of the best” in terms of onboard communication services,” stated Robert Thompson, ARINC Senior Director, SKYLink. “We have responded with an advanced, integrated cabin communications suite that we will soon make available to other customers.”

http://www.arinc.com/news/2009/11-11...e-skylink.html

[Philip Argy]

Pretty impressive setup - I wonder how long before wide body commercial passenger aircraft are fitted out with this sort of technology.

I remember the original GE air to ground phone circa 1981 was very expensive but still got enough use to be a viable service. This seems like it could be the 802.11 gateway equivalent of that first phone.

[Grahame Hutchison]

I remember making what I believe was the first inflight broadband post on the YSSY Message Board a couple of years back, on a Singapore airlines B747 service into Sydney. From memory the broadband was a Boeing installation (wireless in the cabin), the performance was not bad, however the weight penalty for the equipment, and drag from the bubble on top of the fuselage, made it hard to make the system pay. I managed to sync my work email and logon to a number of servers at work, all from 38,000ft, I was impressed.

As a service I would use it all the way from Sydney to Singapore, however from Singapore to Europe it is normally a major sleeping sector, and usage would be limited, as would be the return on investment.