Boeing selects Eutelsat for in-flight Internet connectivity demonstration

Kulpita Maji
12 February 2003

Under this facility, Eutelsat will provide satellite capacity through its Atlantic BIRDä 2 and also through Eutelsat II-F4. Through these two satellites Boeing can offer a seamless network over the Atlantic Ocean and Europe to Lufthansa, and to British Airways that plans to begin in-flight demonstrations in the middle of February 2003.

Things you can do on Fly Net:

1. Full access to personal and business email accounts as well as files
2. Send and receive mails with heavy attachments
3. Get latest news updates
4. Find out more about your destination
5. Shop on the move

The new service, which Lufthansa has branded as Fly Net, will operate through the service offered by Connexion, a business unit of the Boeing Company. This will enable passengers on board a Lufthansa German Airlines Boeing 747-400 to use their personal laptops and ones provided by the airline for high-speed connections to the Internet, including full access to their personal or business email accounts and files. They would be able to attach files to their outgoing emails or open attachments from incoming emails, get the latest news, look up information about their destination or shop online.

Says Eutelsat CEO Giuliano Berretta: “This turnkey service underscores the ability of satellites to provide high-speed Internet access, virtually all over the planet, whether on earth or in the sky. Fully in line with our strategy to expand the scope of satellite usage for new applications, we are proud to partner with Boeing in this demonstration that opens a new chapter for the commercial airline industry and for the satellite communications market.

“By using Eutelsat’s in-orbit Ku-band capacity, Boeing has selected a cost-effective and scaleable solution for offering in-flight broadband Internet access. We look forward to accompanying them as they realise their objective to rolling out high-speed Internet, data and entertainment connectivity to aircraft in-flight.”

During the three-month demonstration, Lufthansa has made the service available free-of-charge to passengers throughout the airplane, which flies daily between Frankfurt and Washington-Dulles International Airport as flights LH 418 (westbound) and LH 419 (eastbound).