LONDON—Inmarsat Ltd., a mobile satellite communications provider, began offering to corporate jet passengers April 10 its new “Swift64” service, which provides data speeds of up to 64 kilobits per second for access to Internet-based applications.
Later this year, Inmarsat will add mobile packet data service based on Internet Protocol to Swift64. By year-end, the company will make the full service offering available to commercial airlines.
The Swift64 platform “will offer clear cost benefits to aircraft carriers by utilizing existing aircraft communications infrastructure to provide fast e-mail and Internet access, video-conferencing facilities and file transfer capabilities to aircraft passengers,” Inmarsat said.
Telenor Satellite Services of Norway and the United States of America will be the authorized sales representative for Swift64 in all four ocean regions Inmarsat covers. Honeywell/Thales will be the first provider of avionics compatible with Swift64, but other manufacturers already have made similar commitments, including Ball Aerospace, EMS Technologies, Rockwell Collins and Thrane & Thrane.
