Swiss introduces Internet on board also on short-haul routes
Published: Wednesday, Jan 24th 2024, 13:40
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Swiss is also introducing Internet on board on short-haul routes. From next winter, the Swiss airline will gradually equip 59 Airbus A220 and Airbus A320 aircraft with broadband internet.
The upgrade is part of a Group-wide installation of high-speed Internet on over 150 aircraft at Lufthansa airlines, Swiss and Lufthansa announced in press releases on Wednesday. This means that passengers can also chat free of charge on European routes or use messenger services such as Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger.
However, customers have to pay for surfing websites and using emails or social media platforms as well as streaming and VPN services. Swiss had already equipped its long-haul aircraft with broadband internet from 2016.
Own mobile network for airplanes
The Internet works with a technology called the European Aviation Network (EAN). This combines the 4G mobile communications standard with a satellite connection. To this end, Deutsche Telekom, the Finnish mobile network supplier Nokia and the satellite company Inmarsat (now Viasat) built a network of several hundred mobile phone antennas across 30 European countries from 2017 and simultaneously placed satellites in orbit.
However, EAN mobile phone antennas differ significantly from the usual cell phone network antennas used in everyday life: These transmission masts are located on elevated sites such as mountains or transmission towers with a long line of sight. This is to prevent the radio signal from being disturbed on the way to the aircraft. In Switzerland, for example, these 4G transmitters are located on Monte Generoso, Säntis and Chasseral.
According to Deutsche Telekom, the mobile phone antennas have been adapted for reception in airplanes. On the ground, mobile signals can be used at speeds of up to 500 kilometers per hour (km/h). However, reception already stutters on high-speed trains.
The 4G technology has been adapted for aircraft so that it works at speeds of up to 1200 km/h. The maximum reception altitude is 12 kilometers.
No really fast Internet
If the EAN ground network cannot be reached because the aircraft is currently over the sea, for example, the satellites are used. For this reason, in addition to the mobile phone antenna under the fuselage, the aircraft also have a mobile phone antenna on the top of the aircraft.
The top surfing speed is a good 75 megabits per second (Mbit/s). This does not quite correspond to the basic service in Switzerland, which the Federal Council has increased to 80 Mbit/s from this year. This is not enough for power users.
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