The Seamless Air Alliance (SAA), a developer of global standards for inflight connectivity, has been accepted as a Market Representation Partner (MRP) by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the world’s largest standard-setting organisation for telecommunications having developed the most widely used mobile broadband standards.
The organisational partners of 3GPP officially granted MRP status to the SAA on 24th April, following the alliance’s leadership of a specialised Working Group on the integration of 3GPP Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) in aviation, a group co-chaired by Airbus and Vodafone. In order to achieve this MRP status, SAA had to be recognised by 3GPP as having the ability to offer market advice to 3GPP and bring into 3GPP a consensus view of market requirements for services, features, and functionality.
“The Seamless Air Alliance represents major inflight connectivity stakeholders and promotes aviation requirements for connectivity solutions including 3GPP 5G and 6G. We are delighted to guide 3GPP with a view of the business and technical needs to enhance the ubiquity and resilience of the next generation of cabin and cockpit connectivity systems,” said Jack Mandala, CEO of the Seamless Air Alliance.
The Alliance also announced the release of a new whitepaper produced by the Hosted Platforms group, one of seven Seamless Air Alliance Technical Working Groups (TWG) led by chairs from industry. The report reveals how the passenger experience may be enhanced with a virtual platform and open ecosystem for aviation applications.
“The borders between inflight entertainment and connectivity are beginning to blur. Airlines want to increase their digital outreach and the capability to add and remove services like ‘apps’ based on common hardware,” stated Yves Beaumont, product line manager at Kontron Avionics, and chair of the Hosted Platforms TWG. “The Hosted Platform initiative will enable the industry to define and build software solutions based on general-purpose, vendor-neutral, virtualised hardware platforms and open interfaces.”
Visitors to Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg this week (28-30 May) can find out more from the Seamless Air Alliance at the Kontron stand (2E24).
