Inmarsat, the world’s leading provider of global mobile satellite communications, and Deutsche Telekom have been announced as winners of the ‘Best Inflight Connectivity Innovation’ award by APEX (Airline Passenger Experience Association) for their ground-breaking new European Aviation Network (EAN) inflight broadband solution.
The prestigious accolade was announced during an awards ceremony tonight that recognises the achievements of airlines and vendor partners from the past year, as part of the industry’s largest passenger experience event, APEX Expo. Inmarsat and Deutsche Telekom are the first winners of the Best Inflight Connectivity Innovation Award, a new category for 2017.
EAN is the world’s first inflight broadband solutions that combines dedicated satellite coverage with a ground network. This unique combination provides what airlines and passengers desire the most with connectivity; simple, lightweight, lightning fast and extremely robust performance.
The infrastructure, which provides rapidly scalable high-capacity coverage across Europe, is able to meet the accelerating demand of new data hungry generations at a lower cost. EAN’s low-latency provides an experience similar to mobile internet on the ground at data rates of over 75Mbps. This makes it uniquely suited for even demanding internet use, such as working with remote business desktops, watching 4K video and gaming.
International Airlines Group (IAG), which includes world-renowned airline brands such as British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling, is the launch customer for the new service.
Mario Franci, Inmarsat Aviation’s Senior Vice President of European Sales and Revenue and Inflight Services, said: “We are delighted that the European Aviation Network has been named Best Inflight Connectivity Innovation at this year’s APEX Awards. EAN is a truly game-changing solution that, for over 500 million passengers, closes the gap between on the ground and in the air. It will give the European aviation industry a significant edge over the rest of the world. Following the successful launch of our satellite earlier this year and the recent completion of its in-orbit tests, we are now looking forward to the service going live later this year.”
David Fox, Deutsche Telekom’s Vice President Inflight Services and Connectivity, said: “This award is fantastic recognition for this unique, multi-national initiative. In the region of highest flight density in the world, the European Aviation Network will transform the passenger experience, drive operational efficiency and open new revenue streams for airlines.”
For more information, please visit www.inmarsat.com.
