Inmarsat and Deutsche Telekom’s new hybrid European Aviation Network (EAN) has its own stand for the first time, where visitors are invited to experience first-hand a service that its developers believe is about to transform Europe’s in-flight connectivity market.
EAN is “the world’s first [combined] satellite and ground network”, says Deutsche Telekom vice-president in-flight services and connectivity David Fox.
The service uses a combination of Inmarsat’s S-band satellite and Deutsche Telekom’s newly-completed network of 300 cellular towers to provide what the two companies say will be a “seamless” in-flight connectivity experience that is ideal for the dense European aviation market.
EAN is scheduled to enter commercial service with launch customer British Airways in the first half of this year. International Airlines Group (IAG) is in the process of installing the system on up to 341 of its member carriers’ Airbus A320-family aircraft.
“The booth displays that EAN is not a dream anymore – it’s a reality and it’s live over Europe,” says Inmarsat Aviation vice-president of strategy and business development Frederik Van Essen.
Fox says the hybrid system is ideally-suited to the European market because “there is a high number of people on short-haul flights, there is high density and you need lots of capacity, so only a satellite- and ground-based system has the required capacity and throughput”.
The model could be replicated elsewhere, says Thorsten Robrecht, vice-president advanced mobile networks solutions at Nokia. The telecommunications company is a technology partner in EAN.
“There is lots of global interest beyond Europe. It’s applicable where lots of aircraft are flying over a large land mass – in all of these countries there’s huge interest in repeating it,” he says.
Get all the coverage from Aircraft Interiors on our dedicated event page
Source: Flight Daily News
