Asia Pacific News

Inmarsat Deploys OnAir Service on Two Asia Pacific Airlines

Japanese airline ANA will deploy Inmarsat SwiftBroadband on its international routes starting in mid-2013. Inmarsat said the Wi-Fi services, which are being provided by its distribution partner OnAir, would be available on all the airline’s international routes, particularly those to American and European destinations. The agreement initially covers 28 aircraft, made up of a mix of Boeing 777-300ERs and Boeing 767-300ERs.

OnAir is also providing in-flight connectivity for Cebu Pacific Air in the Philippines. Starting with deployment in its Airbus A330 fleet, the airline will rollout Internet OnAir to passengers during 2013, with the option to eventually install Wi-Fi on its A320 aircraft.

ViaSat Wins ADF Contract to Supply UHF System for IS-22 Capacity

The Australian Defense Force (ADF) has selected ViaSat to supply the UHF Satellite Communication (satcom) mission system for its recently launched UHF capacity on Intelsat’s IS-22 satellite.

The $35 million award contracts ViaSat to design a voice and data military satcom sytem covering a region from the west coast of Africa to the east coast of Australia.

The ViaSat UHF network control system will include: architecture design; development; integration and test; site preparation; equipment procurement and installation; and technical support. ViaSat said the system would also be designed to include the Integrated Waveform (IW) for channel control and network terminals, which aims to enable an increase in channel efficiency and available bandwidth.