In January 2003 the German company Lufthansa put into operation the world’s first aircraft with WiFi on board . With the passage of time, having an internet connection on flights in the United States became something natural; However, despite these first steps, it is still difficult to achieve in Europe. Up to now.
A new alliance between Deutsche Telekom and Inmarsat will allow, as of 2016, that travelers in Europe can make use of the internet connection during their flight. All this through an innovative combined network based on LTE (Long Term Evolution) developed by both companies and whose objective is to launch the European Aviation Network, with a new Inmarsat S-band satellite and a terrestrial network based on LTE managed by Deutsche Telekom .
Specifically, the land mobile broadband network will consist of 300 LTE sites and will have a range of more than 80 kilometers (conventional LTEs have a maximum of 10 km). In mid-flight, the terrestrial network will be combined with this Inmarsat satellite where the switching between the two will be automatically managed by the systems included in the aircraft cabin and thus avoid possible interference with the flight instruments.
The first airline to join this alliance has been Lufthansa , which has announced that it hopes to be able to offer internet connection throughout the flight from the beginning of summer . The quality of the connection will be similar to that of the terrestrial broadband, so there will be no problems of cuts or ups and downs in the connection. Certainly good news for everyone, considering the current lack of connectivity in the airspace.
