Last year,
Airbus had the target of selling three of its new flexible OneSat satellites to customers around the world. Between January 1
st 2020 and December 30
th 2020, it had only sold one and was in danger of missing a key target. But on Dec 31, Airbus signed a two-satellite deal with
Intelsat, hitting its target literally with hours to spare.
The satellites will be based on the Airbus OneSat product line, the latest generation of fully flexible, in-orbit reconfigurable, software-defined satellites. The OneSat satellites are designed to deliver the optimal balance between performance, flexibility and competitive cost per bit. The two next generation satellites will be delivered in 2023.
Intelsat is evolving towards software-defined, reconfigurable satellite assets that will allow the company to direct high-throughput capacity “precisely where and when an airline needs it”, the satellite operator tells Runway Girl Network.
As part of this strategy, the McClean, Virginia-based company has contracted Airbus to build two OneSat satellites operating in multiple frequency bands. The OneSat product line is Airbus’ latest generation of fully flexible, in orbit reconfigurable, software defined satellites. Intelsat inked the contract with Airbus on 31 December 2020. The two software-defined satellites will be delivered in 2023.
“The Airbus Software Defined satellites will deliver powerful performance and a ground-breaking experience for Intelsat customers across multiple geographic regions,” explains Intelsat in a statement.
Gogo Commercial Aviation president John Wade predicts that “freemium” and third-party payer models will dominate inflight connectivity in the years to come.
“One of the things I think people need to remember is despite some of the dialogue that’s going on, terrestrial Wi-Fi isn’t free. Wi-Fi in your home isn’t free … So, there is a cost to providing Wi-Fi. Somebody is paying for it. So, if you think about that from the passenger perspective, and aviation in general, the person that’s paying is either the airline, a sponsor, a third party or the passenger. All those models will still remain relevant,” Wade tells Runway Girl Network.