Superfast airborne connectivity will be available on board the Airbus A350 XWB now that Thales has secured linefit offerability - and a launch customer - for its Ka-band satellite-based communications solution.
The connectivity will be supported by Inmarsat's forthcoming Global Xpress Ka-band aeronautical service, which is expected to be available around the 2014 timeframe. But Thales is committed to providing the necessary equipment to airlines at the 2013 entry-into-service of the A350.
The firm says it is able to begin testing service against existing Ka technology. "The Inmarsat technology and satellite constellation is based on far more standard components from Boeing than previous satellite constellations. So what they've done is they've taken the existing line of satellites and they're accelerating the delivery of some of them for Inmarsat," says Thales vice-president of marketing and customer proposition Stuart Dunleavy.
"This means as an avionics company Thales has been shortlisted as a provider of avionics for Ka band and that means we can begin testing against existing Ka technology which is already flying today. So it's not like [Inmarsat's L-band-based] SwiftBroadband where you only had one platform to test against and you had to wait for that to be available."
Thales' connectivity technology path includes offering SwiftBroadband-supported solutions today, but graduating to Ka-band as soon as Global Xpress is ignited. "We're choosing to do this because we need a solution that is global, economically stable and gives the bandwidth the customers need. That's why we're firmly in line with the Global Xpress Ka-band," says Dunleavy.
Within that framework, Thales is well advanced in developing its in-cabin Wi-FI/GSM network solution, having partnered with TriaGnosys for the platform, which is designed to be service provider neutral and satellite communications neutral.
"We're still the only provider of in-cabin connectivity that will be on the [Boeing] 787, and that's [with customer] Qatar Airways," notes Dunleavy.
Qatar is the launch customer for Thales' newly-named Android-based TopSeries AVANT in-flight entertainment system on the 787. Dunleavy declines to say if Qatar - which has ordered 80 A350s - is the launch customer for Thales' Ka-band solution with AVANT. But he says the offering on the A350 will represent "the ultimate expression" of Thales' new architecture.
Separately, Thales has also started marketing a scaled down "seat centric" version of AVANT. "The ultra light product removes virtually all of the head-end [server equipment] and therefore relies on the seat centric architecture."
Source: Flight Daily News
