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SwiftBroadband gets upgraded by Inmarsat
New enhancements have been revealed by Inmarsat for its SwiftBroadband aeronautical connectivity service.
Inmarsat’s network now supports a new higher speed SwiftBroadband streaming class, which effectively allows an aircraft exclusive use of a satellite bearer. This extra functionality will generally be available above 15 degrees elevation when the satellite resources are available.
The new streaming class is being charged per minute similar to the existing 16, 32, 64 and 128 kbps services. In addition, Inmarsat is introducing new 8 and 16kbps streaming classes together with a dynamic ‘Quality of Service’, allowing onboard applications to use the bandwidth more efficiently.
Lars Ringertz, Inmarsat’s head of marketing for aeronautical business, explained, “After making SwiftBroadband globally available at the end of February last year, we have continued to develop and evolve the service to meet the requirements of specific markets and users. With the introduction of new streaming classes and dynamic ‘Quality of Service’, we have further enhanced SwiftBroadband as an application platform for the whole aircraft, positioning Inmarsat as the only provider capable of delivering safety services, operational applications as well as higher data rate connectivity through a single pipe to the aircraft.”
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