Viasat and Honeywell have announced an expanded agreement where Honeywell, as part of its GoDirect Cabin Connectivity suite of services, will offer Viasat’s high-speed Ka-band in-flight internet service to large and mid-cabin business jet customers.
Viasat said the Ka-band service is “proven to support more passengers and more devices simultaneously through all phases of flight, when performing bandwidth-intensive applications, including accessing virtual private networks, or streaming high definition (HD) video calls, cloud content or live TV entertainment.”
Through Viasat’s service, GoDirect customers can conduct business or be entertained in-air as they are on the ground and watch live streaming TV with minimal-to-no impact on the data plan and without the need for a separate antenna.
For business jet travellers interested in global primary and backup connectivity service, Viasat’s Ku-band service, available via GoDirect, includes global Ku-band data on all Ka-band plans 40GB and larger, at no additional service cost. The service will be available for aircraft properly equipped with Viasat’s dual-band Ka-/Ku-band shipset.
Viasat’s business aviation in-flight internet service will tap into a Ka-band satellite communications network and will also use Viasat’s most robust business-class shipset, the Global Aero Terminal 5510.
“Whether connecting for business or pleasure, we’re proving on more than 2,000 Viasat Ka-band equipped flights daily that internet speeds and performance can be comparable in the air and the ground,” said Jerry Goodwin, vice-president, Global Network Services, Viasat. “By expanding our partnership with GoDirect we’re bringing a new internet service quality to the business aviation market. We’re enabling more business jet owners to be productive and access the applications they need and want in densely populated airspace, at the speeds and reliability they expect.”
GoDirect will offer the Viasat Ka-band and dual-band service to new Viasat customers, as well as their current Viasat Ku-band customers interested in migrating to or adding the service. Certified units of the Viasat Ka-band shipset will be available for several business jet airframes in the second half of 2018.
