Digital Audio & Video Systems

Group: Aviation Satellite Services and VSAT - Independent Opinions
Subject: Why Iridium Aireon Will Create Huge Demand for High Throughput Satellite Connectivity

Currently, commercial aircraft operating across Atlantic routes are separated by around 50 miles, and aircraft report their positions to air controllers every 15 minutes. With Aireon, controllers on both sides of the Atlantic will receive real-time positions of aircraft allowing the distance between aircraft to reduced to 10-15 miles.

Essentially this means that more aircraft will be able to fly at higher altitudes resulting in around a 2% annual saving in fuel costs which is an enormous saving. However, for High Throughput Satellite providers, packing the aircraft closer together will result in significantly more aircraft in a single spot beam thereby upping the demand for throughput dramatically.

With large numbers of jumbo jets in a single beam, services with lower throughput such as Global Xpress (50 Mbps) are likely to be inadequate to handle the demand with the capacity and market advantage passing to to Ku-Band Intelsat Epic (160 Mbps) and soon to be launched Viasat2. If experiences on Cruise ships are any indication of how the demand for consumer use has skyrocketed, then airlines will need every Megabit of capacity to satisfy the demand for inflight Internet.

Alan Gottlieb
Managing Director
Gottlieb International Group

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