OneWeb Aviation

OneWeb’s Ben Griffin leads the Commercial Aviation team responsible for delivering new in-flight connectivity solutions to the airline industry. The London-based former VP for Aviation at Inmarsat brings 20 years’ of connected aircraft experience to OneWeb’s global satellite communications network. He is harnessing OneWeb’s transformative technology to design and deliver a new portfolio of services in time for ground tests and demonstrations in late 2020 and commercial services in 2021.

Q: What new features does OneWeb have in store for aviation connectivity?

OneWeb’s Aviation offering is a departure from previous passenger connectivity services. We are the first low-latency, high-throughput global connectivity service to power a fiber-like broadband experience in the skies. Until now, in-flight connectivity systems have relied on satellites in Geostationary Earth Orbit, located more than 35,000km from Earth. The signal on a Europe-US flight is affected for up to several hours by the position of the satellite above the Equator, and the curvature of the Earth. Our fleet of moving satellites orbit 30 times closer, at 1,200km. You will see a difference in terms of speed, reliability and accessibility. For example, dense orbital coverage above the 60th parallel North means we can offer inflight connectivity and 375Gbps of capacity over the northerly tracks and polar region for the first time.

Q: What will be the benefits to passengers?

Passengers and airlines can enjoy seamless, fiber-like broadband quality in the air for the first time. This will bring better value, and a much richer in-flight experience. Wherever they travel, passengers will be able watch live TV, content-streaming services such as Netflix, or enjoy real-time gaming, cloud applications, web browsing, email and social media. These tools are now part of daily life for many passengers. On a 500-passenger aircraft, every passenger will be able to enjoy high-speed, low-latency connectivity.

Q: What will be the benefit to airline / crew?

Our ethos is centred on simplicity, high-value and credibility. Our network will allow airlines to fulfil their digitisation programmes across the whole passenger journey – from booking to in-flight to landing and their onward journey. It will benefit airline operational communication applications such as telemedicine, for passenger health emergencies; live non-safety data, such as image-based weather updates; real-time streaming of analytics on non-safety aircraft systems; and real-time passenger information, to allow a more personalised service to be delivered.

OneWeb is not offering a one­-size-fits-all solution. Our in-flight services come tailored to the needs of all types of airlines, and with the onboard equipment to match every requirement. Whether it is a full-service carrier, or a low-cost one, or a regional operator, we have a service package and equipment solution to suit.

Q: What about resellers – do you have partners?

We are gearing up to make some important distribution partner announcements later this year. We are building an ecosystem of partners to help us deliver as varied and complete a service as possible whilst staying true to our goal of simplifying any processes for airlines and their customers.

Q: The in-flight entertainment (IFE) and connectivity market is full of stories of over promising and under-delivering. What makes OneWeb different?

We are at the execution phase of our system. We have raised more than US$3.4 billion in our mission to connect everyone, everywhere, and we have world-class partners to support us, including SoftBank, Airbus, Grupo Salinas, Hughes, Qualcomm, Virgin, the Government of Rwanda, Bharti, Intelsat and Coco-Cola. We design and build our own satellites and, in a joint venture with Airbus, have opened a high-volume satellite production facility in Florida. We are building the critical ground infrastructure and have ground antennas in Italy, Norway, Canada, with more coming online. We have Satellite Operations Centers (SOCs) and Ground Network Operations Centers (GNOCs) based in the USA and UK. We are firmly committed to delivering a more reliable and more flexible service that will help airlines meet the evolving needs of their customers.

With this in mind, we were a founding partner in 2018, along with Airbus, Airtel, Delta Air Lines and Sprint, in the Seamless Air Alliance. The Alliance is aiming to simplify the in-flight connectivity process, allowing any passenger, boarding any flight, on any airline, anywhere in the world, to use their own devices to automatically connect to the Internet without a complicated login process or pay wall. Look out for more news about our efforts to accelerate seamless roaming onboard at the Mobile World Congress in February 2020.

OneWeb to make "doing business" on business jets a reality
October 21, 2019. Las Vegas, NV: OneWeb, a global communications company with a mission to connect everyone everywhere, will bring high speed, low latency, reliable in-flight connectivity to business aviation users – creating a “fit for business” cabin in the sky for the first time. With global services beginning in 2021, OneWeb’s inflight service will connect unconnected routes such as the Arctic from the outset, and business jet fliers will be able to access all applications from their office in the air.

Working with key industry partners, OneWeb pledges to deliver an affordable line-fit solution to the lightest of bizjets, through to large cabin VVIP airliners and new supersonic offerings. OneWeb’s service will transform flight connectivity at a time when cabin connectivity is ranked a top priority for commercial operators and private jet buyers.

The business aviation team, led by Dylan Browne, Head of OneWeb’s Business Aviation, Government and Maritime sectors, will be at NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas, NV. (October 21-24) to explain the benefits of low latency, cloud-friendly services to OEMs and to prospective partners.

“Our vision for business aviation is fully customized, truly global, uninterrupted high-speed connectivity and we are building an eco-system for this sector,” said Dylan Browne. “Business jet users want to make their time onboard count. They need to be able to access the same tools in the sky as on the ground. OneWeb will make it possible for all the software applications used in an office to be available in the sky. We are duly looking forward to our debut at the world’s biggest business aviation gathering, with a vast range of specialist companies represented under one roof, including resellers and antenna suppliers.”

When OneWeb services go live, passengers will be able to fully participate in necessary business operations such as multiple simultaneous uninterrupted live video conferences, access cloud solutions such as Office365, connect with Live TV, as well as content streaming Apps such as Netflix and Amazon Video, but also keep up to date with the family on FaceTime and WhatsApp.

Domination in LEO satellites
OneWeb’s solution comes from high performing, low latency, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites situated much closer to Earth – approximately 750 miles.

This means that business jet passengers connecting in-flight won’t have to compete for their coverage in the traditional GEO (Geostationary) space 30 times further away, where transmission regularly drops out. A typical GEO satellite signal round-trip of nearly 45,000 miles on average means a network time delay of two seconds.

GEOs also cannot serve the polar regions, where OneWeb plans to offer polar track coverage from day one, which is good news for the business jet community, with aircraft flying longer and further than ever before.

OneWeb has been focused in the past months on growing its Business Aviation team and recently welcomed satellite mobility expert Carole Plessy, who brings 20 years of experience to OneWeb and previously headed product development at Inmarsat. Carol joins Ed Slater, who led airborne communication systems and planning for Air Force One during President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama’s terms, in the business aviation team.

OneWeb’s satellites are built in Florida by OneWeb Satellites, a joint venture between OneWeb and Airbus. OneWeb will deploy more than 30 satellites on a monthly basis starting in December 2019, as it grows its constellation for full global coverage.