How can an inflight internet service provider ensure the service will work in the most inhospitable markets it can imagine? A visit to Alaska’s North Slope in mid-December was Intelsat‘s choice, with a visit to Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) to demonstrate the multi-orbit functionality of its new electronically steered antenna (ESA) terminal.
There’s been some industry chatter about the performance of [ESAs] in extreme far north locations on one constellation or the other. Rather than just looking at theoretical stuff, we wanted to go do the practical aspect of it.
– Dave Bijur, Intelsat’s SVP Commercial Aviation
Intelsat’s SVP Commercial Aviation Dave Bijur notes that the company took customers along for the ride, and that it was fully confident in the ability to deliver the expected performance. “Airlines generally want to see to see products work,” he explains. “The whole reason you have a test aircraft is to demonstrate it to the airlines… They like to know what’s going on and they like to see it work in the flesh.”
The test allowed the company to take its CRJ700 test aircraft to the northernmost hub – Anchorage – and beyond. It operated on Intelsat’s GEO network to Anchorage, noting no issues with performance or closing the link on the GEO satellites with the ESA. From there, Intelsat switched to OneWeb‘s LEO constellation, testing the ESA’s performance up to 71 degrees north latitude. Those routes – whether truly “polar” or just very northerly – are where the GEO connectivity tends to drop out, including Intelsat’s 2Ku system on a Detroit-Tokyo trip I took several years ago. Plugging that gap with LEO is a key facet of Intelsat’s multi-orbit strategy.
A different type of connectivity
Bijur also called attention to the impact lower latency on the OneWeb satellites had for the overall online experience. While GEO is still the more cost-effective way to ship large quantities of data traffic (i.e. video) to a plane, LEO delivers “a fairly different experience,” especially for real-time interactions such as collaborative document editing or other workplace productivity applications.
Bujur believes eventually the company will add concurrent multi-orbit data flows on board. That is not, however, part of the design spec for the initial activation of the Stellar Blu Sidewinder antenna and terminal hardware on board.
In many ways this test should be filed under the “of course it worked” category. After all, the company has been flying N680SK for more than a year now with the kit on board. And it brought customers along on the ride. Still, there are a few additional details worth exploring in how the system is working and what comes next.
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