EAN targets business aviation market

Deutsche Telekom’s (DT) European Aviation Network (EAN) initiative, clearly adopting a ‘keep calm and carry on’ approach amid swirling acquisition rumours and ongoing regulatory hiccups, confirmed that it intends to launch its inflight Wi-Fi service in the business aviation market by early-2019.

Inmarsat, DT’s satellite partner for the EAN, framed the move as the next step for the service following its launch in the commercial airline market. The satellite services provider said work had already commenced with a “large business aviation launch customer”, although no further details appear to have been provided, such as the identity of the customer.

Philip Balaam, President of Inmarsat Aviation, described EAN as a “game-changer” for business aviation, noting that the service could be deployed in a “broad spectrum of aircraft, from small turboprops to larger platforms, such as the Citations, Learjets, and Phenoms. It really is ideal for any business jet whose mission keeps them predominantly in Europe”.

FlightGlobal noted that the EAN service will complement Inmarsat’s existing Ka-band-based Jet ConneX service, which is used in aircraft that fly to international destinations outside of Europe. Inmarsat said it expects the European business aviation fleet to exceed 5,000 aircraft in the coming years. Jet ConneX has now been installed on 275 business jets worldwide.

Reasons to be cheerful…

The move comes with DT and Inmarsat, plus their various EAN partners, continuing to work towards a commercial launch of the system, alongside International Airlines Group’s (IAG) British Airways business.

In early-2018, DT and Nokia trumpeted the completion of the system’s complementary ground component (CGC) after building 292 specialised LTE masts in 30 countries — the 28 European Union member countries plus Norway and Switzerland — to support the EAN (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #70). Inmarsat launched the accompanying S-band satellite in June 2017, and extensive tests have been carried out since (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #65 and passim).

Nonetheless, a 30 June 2018 target for the commercial launch of the system passed without announcement or explanation. Previously, specialist magazine Runway Girl Network noted that “team EAN is like a locked box when it comes to discussing particulars about the roll out of the inflight connectivity service on British Airways” because of sensitivity about timings by the launch customer. Balaam told the publication that “we are installing at pace, at very high pace”.

British Airways’ launch of branded inflight Wi-Fi services on its long-haul flights, based on technology from inflight broadband specialist Gogo (also a partner of T-Mobile US — Deutsche Telekomwatch, #42 and passim), could provide some insight into possible branding and pricing of the short-haul service that will be based on the EAN.

The airline said in February 2018 that it had connected three aircraft to the service, with plans to connect 118 of its long-haul aircraft over the next two years. The service is branded .air, and two packages are available: Browse, with speeds of “no less than” 250Kbps and prices starting at £4.99 (€5.64); and Stream, with speeds of “no less than” 1Mbps and starting at £7.99. Both packages are available once the aircraft has reached a height of about 10,000ft.

…but obstacles and ‘kerfuffle’ remain

The situation for EAN has become a little more opaque in recent months for a number of different reasons, including the fact that acquisition rumours have been swirling around the ground-based LTE system, as well as Inmarsat itself.

A recent Bloomberg report suggested that Google was in “advanced discussions” with Nokia over a buyout of the customised LTE system — a move that could place DT in an awkward position as both a service provider customer and potential rival of Google (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #72). In turn, rivals to Google, should it target the USA’s inflight broadband services market (as planned by Nokia — Deutsche Telekomwatch, #61), would include Gogo.

Inmarsat, for its part, has been the subject of a takeover bid by US rival EchoStar. The UK-based provider turned down a “highly preliminary” offer in early-June 2018, but Bloomberg reported that EchoStar is considering raising its offer.

Meanwhile, EAN has received a setback in its legal battle with US-based satellite provider ViaSat, which claims that the EAN is a terrestrial offering, not a satellite service, and that this constitutes a “misuse” of its licence (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #65 and passim). ViaSat has lodged a legal complaint against the European Commission with the General Court of the European Court of Justice, and has also filed challenges with a number of regulators in member states. In March 2018, the Belgium Market Court reached the decision to annul Inmarsat’s CGC authorisation from the Belgian regulator, the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications, to operate the hybrid inflight connectivity service in the country.

DT, as is its custom, has refrained from commenting on the various issues relating to the EAN service launch, and, indeed, problems and delays with EAN must now seem a familiar story for all partners involved.

Inmarsat has come out and said that EAN remains on track despite the court decision, although Balaam, who referred to the matter as the “Belgium kerfuffle”, told Runway Girl Network that ViaSat’s efforts to prevent the EAN’s launch seemed to have been effective in “slowing things down a bit”. At the same time, he said the court’s decision was nothing more than a “procedural thing; there’s nothing fundamental. We’re not concerned at all about that side of things”.