An agreement has been reached that will enable Panasonic Avionics to market, sell and support OneWeb’s high-speed, low-latency LEO inflight broadband services to commercial airlines worldwide. Panasonic Avionics will offer OneWeb’s global service as a standalone offer, or paired with Panasonic Avionics’ GEO service.
Panasonic says its GEO service already covers 99.6% of the world’s flight routes, but that adding service with OneWeb represents a multi-orbit strategy that will offer airlines more choices, with the top-tier products supporting forward link speeds approaching 200Mbps and return link speeds up to 32Mbps everywhere in the world, including polar routes. This level coverage and speed will improve the inflight wi-fi and streaming experience for passengers and enable low-latency functions including live gameplay, video conferencing, and VoIP communication.
Panasonic Avionics expects to support OneWeb-equipped aircraft in the second half of 2023. As a part of the agreement, Panasonic Avionics will make its catalogue of cloud-enabled, broadband-connected applications available over the OneWeb network, including mobile phone connectivity, the ARC moving map, ZeroTouch content management, and related services.
“Our mission at OneWeb is to enable airlines to deliver a consistent, terrestrial-like connectivity experience to their passengers, no matter when or where they are flying – over oceans, over the North Pole – absolutely everywhere. This connectivity experience will drive value through enhanced passenger satisfaction and loyalty, ancillary services, and operational efficiencies. This agreement with Panasonic is significant for OneWeb, as it allows us to leverage their reputation, expertise and reach to bring our LEO network to airlines, while seamlessly integrating our connectivity solution within existing IFEC infrastructure,” said OneWeb’s VP of mobility services, Ben Griffin.
