Panasonic may restart Boeing’s Connexion, reports Inflight Online and WiFiNetNews.

Panasonic Aero is securing agreements to cover a minimum of 500 aircraft in the next 60 days. “In return for a minimum five-year commitment we’ll reward our launch customers with very preferential service pricing, and they will also get priority access to bandwidth,” Panasonic’s strategic marketing director David Bruner told Inflight Online at the World Airline Entertainment Association show in Miami Beach last week.

Panasonic’s standard wholesale price to the airlines would represent a comparatively small premium on terrestrial broadband access tariffs, Bruner said. “So far we are seeing little indication that the airlines are planning to mark this up for passengers. It’s a service they want to offer – they don’t currently see it as a revenue-generator.”

The new offering is designed to be as attractive as possible to airlines that are already equipped for Connexion. “Our solution for them is to replace only the modem on the aircraft and leave all the rest of the hardware, including the antenna, in place,” said Bruner. “That will spare them the expense of reversing the Connexion installations and then putting in our definitive equipment suite.”

That includes a compact Ku-band antenna from Californian-based L-3 Datron Advanced Technologies. Another L-3 Communications operation, the Linkabit division, is supplying the modem. Both are already fully developed for US military applications and have been modified for civil use by removing the encryption provision.

Panasonic has selected a single Ku-band satellite operator to provide transponder capacity and geographical coverage at least equivalent to Connexion’s.

“With an initial fleet of 500 aircraft we would anyway pay significantly less for transponders than Connexion,” Bruner pointed out. “But our technical solution will also be more efficient than theirs, allowing us to put more traffic through each transponder and thus reduce our total requirement for satellite capacity.”

Connexion used the C and Ku band of SES Americom’s AMC-23 for Pacific and Asian coverage with Americom’s Ku band in AMC-4 and AMC-6 handling coverage over the Americas and Atlantic Ocean region. Connexion used Eutelsat over Europe.

At least three other systems are planning on-board internet access.

• AeroMobile is currently to committed to L-band operator Inmarsat for its soon to be introduced onboard cellphone offering. It is looking to offer email and Internet/VPN access in the longer term, and would be open to integration with the Panasonic Ku-band system in the same way its new GSM/GPRS cellular offering is being integrated with the company’s onboard IFE infrastructure.
• AirCell plans a terrestrial broadband system in North America. At the initial launch, in early 2008, AirCell’s broadband service will include a Wi-Fi hotspot that allows airline passengers to surf the Internet, use e-mail, and log on to their corporate VPN’s using their WiFi-equipped devices.
• OnAir, a joint venture of Airbus and Tenzing, will use Inmarsat’s new spotbeam satellite system and offer lower connection fees. OnAir provides some 492Kbits/second to aircraft cabins. The Pacific satellite (F-3) should be operational next year with service expected in 2008.

Related DailyWireless stories include; Dis Connexion Connexion Dying, AirFone Dead, Airplane Wireless Auction (Virtually) Over, AirCell Demos Inflight WiFi, Connexion’s Press Junket, Intelsat Spotbeam Launched, Airfone Adding WiFi, Aircell for Planes and FCC Rules on Airplane Cellular.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Wednesday, September 20th, 2006 at 4:29 am.