FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1990
1990 - 3372.PDF
A single second-generation Inmarsat 2 provides communications capacity approaching that of the entire first-generation fleet text communications at a 600 bit/s data rate. The terminals can be as small as a briefcase. It currently costs about $8,000 to set up for Inmarsat C but this cost is expected to fall. Inmarsat C includes group-call fleet net work and safety services, as well as global position reporting and remote monitoring, providing strong competition for the strug gling US Geostar and European Locstar and the US/Canadian MSat systems providing regional radio-determination and mobile communication services. These companies also have the disadvan tage of having to start from scratch. Even Europe's well-established Eutelsat, which offers the Euteltracs radio-determination and messaging service, is limited geographi cally. Inmarsat C "...spreads the base for global mobile communications almost to a consumer level", says Inmarsat. Two types of terminal are available for the new aeronautical services: one with a low-gain antenna for data-only communica tions, for flightdeck and airline operational purposes, costing between $100,000- and $150,000; the other with a high-gain an tenna for flightdeck voice and passenger telephone services, costing anywhere from $350,000 to $500,000. Inmarsat has divided the aeronautical services into three distinct marketing groups: commercial airlines, corporate avia tion and general aviation. Airline passengers potentially can be provided with data-based facsimile, personal computer (PC), in-flight entertainment and payphone services. Ap plications can include news, financial, banking and travel services, hotel reserva tions, car hire and duty-free shopping. Flight crew can be provided with datal- inks and crew telephone for air traffic control, automatic dependent surveillance (the aircraft automatically reporting its po sition via satellite), systems monitoring, weather forecasting, flight planning and documentation services. Cabin crew will have data- and voice-linked services for catering, crew management and rostering and medical services. Corporate passengers can be provided with facsimile, PC and voice links plus secure/scrambled phone calls. Corporate flight crew will have access to similar services to those offered to airline crews, as would general-aviation pilots. CONSORTIA FORMING Aeronautical satellite-communications oper ators have already formed consortia. One such is Skyphone, a UK-Singapore-Nordic venture concentrating on passenger serv ices, which has just brought on stream the new satellite ground station at Goonhilly, to complement ones in Norway and Singapore. Other ventures include the Canada/ France/Australia/USA Satellite Aircom serv ice, which is supported by one station in each nation. The US/Japan Comsat/KDD venture will join with Airphone, an existing ground-based US-only service, using two stations in the USA and one in Japan. An Italian-German service is being formed and the Soviet Union and Portugal are also planning similar systems. Two stations ca pable of supporting aeronautical services are already available in Italy and Germany. Most major airlines are committed to aeronautical satellite communications as an essential part of their passenger services in the 1990s. Inmarsat aeronautical services senior business development officer Hans Karlsen estimates that "...between 50 and 100 aircraft will be suitably kitted out to provide the service by the end of 1991 and up to 1,800 by 1995. About 50% of these will be corporate aircraft." The future Inmarsat B service to replace the existing A system will use digital rather than analogue transmissions. This will re duce interference, give more capacity, be more compact and more economical and offer stronger guaranteed data rates. The A system will continue to be offered. Looking to enhance its new C service, the organisation has plans for Inmarsat M, which would be the first universally used telephone — a small, simple terminal for voice, facsimile and data communications. These new services will be provided with the .help of the Inmarsat 3 fleet to be introduced in about 1994. Inmarsat is negotiating with GE Astro Space and Matra Marconi Space with a view to ordering these satellites, which will have steerable spot beams for the simultaneous re-use of fre quencies to much smaller ground terminals. Inmarsat 3 will be six times more powerful than Inmarsat 2, offer cheaper L-band to L-band links, allow smaller receivers and enable more efficient usage of satellite communications capacity. Inmarsat 3 will also add a new dimension — a navigation service. This would enhance the confidence of commercial users of the US Navstar and Soviet Glonass military navigation satellites by providing an integ rity channel to verify the operation and accuracy of these systems. In the longer term, Inmarsat sees such advances as satellite-based air traffic control and passenger "smart card" in-flight cus toms clearance before arrival. • 14 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 7 - 13 November, 1990
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
