Panasonic Avionics Corporation (PAC), China Eastern Airlines, APT Mobile SatCom, and China Telecom Satellite Communications (“CTSat”) have released performance data for their inflight connectivity service over China, which uses PAC’s Extreme Throughput Satellite (XTS) service on the APStar 6D communications satellite.
The companies report that, on a recent China Eastern Airlines’ flight (MU5105 – Shanghai to Beijing), passengers saw average speeds up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) to the aircraft, with peak speeds reaching 200Mbps. These speeds were sufficient to give passengers access to services such as streaming video, video conferencing, downloading large files, and high-speed web browsing, on multiple devices, all at the same time.
The aircraft used on this flight had previously been equipped with inflight connectivity hardware from Panasonic Avionics, with no changes or upgrades to the existing antenna, wireless access points, satellite modem, or other critical components required for the XTS/ APStar 6D service.
Ron Ho, Panasonic Avionics’ VP and general manager for the Asia Pacific region, explained that all aircraft fitted with Panasonic connectivity equipment will automatically access APStar 6D as they transit through the region.
Jason Li, CEO of APT Mobile SatCom commented, “APStar 6D is the world’s first extreme throughput communication satellite for mobile service optimisation. Beams of different sizes, capacity and bandwidth, dynamic adjustment capability and full view coverage are unique designs for the characteristics of satellite inflight mobile service. We believe that APStar 6D is the most ideal solution for Panasonic Avionics to realise inflight connectivity service in China and even the whole APAC region.”