Alcatel has been tagged to lead a new $16 million European R&D effort to establish standards for providing broadband to ships, trains and planes. The European consortium, called MOWGLY (MObile Wideband GLobal Link sYstem), formally sprang into existence Jan. 1.

The MOWGLY project, which is scheduled to take two years, will focus on using the recently enacted DVB-S2/DVB-RCS standard for delivery of broadband from satellites to moving transportation of all sorts. Currently, Alcatel notes, all current systems either use proprietary solutions or they dish up only narrowband. Included in MOWGLY, whose charter calls for a focus on business-case analysis, engineering studies and performance evaluation, are plans for live trials.

A little more than half of MOWGLY funding, some $8.6 million, is coming from the European Commission, with rest coming from MOWGLY members, including Airbus Deutschland, Alcatel CIT, Alcatel ETCA, Alcatel Space, Alstom Transporte, Broadreach Networks, Eutelsat, Ineco, M.B.I., Orbit Communication, PointShot Wireless, Rockwell Collins France, TeS Teleinformatica e Sistemi, TriaGnoSys, The University of Surrey and Video & Suono Telecom.