"reintroduction" : Collins eXchange broadband connectivity
Rockwell Collins Broadband eXchange Flies Again
zibb.com
Starts off:
...Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Rockwell Collins' "eXchange" airborne broadband service for private aviation is back on the runway. The service was forced to shut down when the Connexion by Boeing service that powered it crashed and burned at the end of last year....
...Rockwell Collins inked a deal with ARINC, which runs the SKYLink in- flight broadband system (and what had been Connexion's major rival). Under the pact, Rockwell Collins soon will take over provision of airborne broadband hardware and after-sales support, while ARINC SKYLink will provide the Ku-band satellite service....
...Essentially, ARINC is replacing Boeing as the service provider for eXchange....
...So far, Rockwell Collins hasn't committed to someday offering eXchange to commercial airlines, but it has started hinting pretty broadly that such a move is under consideration. Specifically, it's trying hard not to directly comment on reports that it's negotiating with Southwest Airlines, but it's not denying them, either. Indeed, it should be noted that when ARINC was first developing SKYLink, it had at first been targeting commercial aviation....
...Although the eXchange service is back in business, it won't take off immediately. "Some modifications" must be made to the hardware Rockwell Collins had been using to connect to Connexion,... It wasn't clear how long that would take. Until then, ARINC will continue to supply its hardware to customers - and former eXchange customers will have to continue to fly in their private jet planes without access to broadband....
...Boeing announced Connexion's closure last summer (TelecomWeb news break, Aug. 17, 2006), with an end of service set for New Year's Eve. The months of advance notice, in part, reflected hopes that a buyer might be found to take over the service. That didn't happen....
...Thus when the plug was pulled on Connexion, it also was pulled on eXchange, although few outside of the general-aviation industry noticed. Rockwell Collins also hasn't said how many customers ever signed up for eXchange....
...Rockwell Collins describes eXchange as "a real-time, two-way connectivity system providing true broadband speeds of up to 3.5 Mb/s to the aircraft."..
..Full specs are an uplink speed of 128 Kb/s and downlink speed of 512 Kb/s to 3.5 Mb/s. (Amusingly, in this case, uplink means down, i.e., from the plane to the terrestrial World Wide Web, while downlink is up to the plane...
..ARINC uses the terms "return" and "forward" instead of uplink and downlink, in hopes of avoiding confusion.)...
Coupled with the SKYLink satellite service, eXchange customers will have access to the Internet and to corporate intranets (via virtual private networks) and e-mail, Rockwell Collins says.
The eXchange service also includes a flat- rate VoIP global telephone service and videoconferencing capability.
Coverage for eXchange using the SKYLink service will be available immediately in North America and Europe, with North Atlantic coverage to be added "soon." Further international coverage expansion is planned for the Caribbean and portions of South and Central America,...
Also see 7/26/2007 : Rockwell Collins’ third quarter fiscal year 2007
Collins eXchange comments are at the bottom................
webwire.com
reintroduced Collins eXchange broadband connectivity
...Rockwell Collins will supply airborne broadband hardware and after sales support,...
...while ARINC SKYLink will provide the Ku-band satellite service...
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Background:
2006: Rockwell Collins eXchange
March 28, 2006: Rockwell Collins eXchange broadband data and live TV solution recently received a commercial license from the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to operate in the United States.
rockwellcollins.com
...The FCC license makes the eXchange offering an approved system for installation and full operation on a customer aircraft in the United States. This follows an experimental license granted to eXchange in 2005 which allowed for the initial deployment and testing of eXchange....
...Rockwell Collins eXchange will be the first system to offer the business jet market live broadband television while flying over oceanic regions....
..The capability of the eXchange system is made possible through a strategic agreement with Connexion by Boeing, a business unit of the Boeing Company. The eXchange system combines the advanced antenna technology and signal processing capabilities of Rockwell Collins' Tailwind 500 multi-region DBS TV system with the broadband services of Connexion by Boeing to enable real-time, nearly global two-way Ku-band data coverage....
Rockwell Collins eXchange:
rockwellcollins.com
and
rockwellcollins.com
This PDF does indicate the copyright is 2005
rockwellcollins.com
Connexion by Boeing
Connexion officially ended December 31, 2006 :
en.wikipedia.org
...On August 17, 2006, Boeing announced that it would discontinue its Connexion service, stating that, "the market for this service has not materialized as had been expected." While the consumer service offered by CBB (Connexion by Boeing) officially ended December 31, 2006 at midnight, Connexion's government contracts for the same service to U.S. Government planes continue....
Possible annual revenues from in-flight Internet access:
June 2006: Boeing shouldn't pull the plug on Connexion.By Daniel Gross
slate.com
near the end:
...The company should front the $500,000 per plane to outfit a bunch of planes that fly routes where there would be a lot of use—the Boston-New York-Washington shuttle, the West Coast, and Dallas-based long-haul flights—and see how many people are willing to pay....
...If, say, 5 percent of the 730 million passengers who fly U.S. airlines each year were to pay an average of $20 for in-flight Internet access, that would be $733 million in annual revenues....
air-to-ground network :
Wi-Fi in the Sky Coming Next Year
newsfactor.com
...AirCell's air-to-ground network will use a series of ground-based cellular towers to communicate with planes in flight. Three different antennas will be installed on the outside of each aircraft: two on the bottom and one on top. American Airlines said it will be testing an AirCell prototype on a single transcontinental flight from New York to California beginning in January of 2008.... |
