Collins Aerospace is now a global distribution partner for Inmarsat’s new SwiftJet in-flight connectivity service for business aircraft. The L-band-based service is due to enter commercial service this year, offering maximum speeds of 2.6 Mbps. Inmarsat noted the new service is up to six times faster than its SwiftBroadband service.
SwiftJet uses Inmarsat’s Elera satellite network and can support assured global connections in flight, according to the company. Its bandwidth is sufficient to support video calls, web browsing, email, texting, and cloud-syncing, as well as collaborative tools such as Microsoft Teams.
Collins, a unit of Raytheon Technologies, is a long-standing partner of Inmarsat. Under the agreement announced today, it will help business aviation customers to upgrade their connectivity installations, as well as manage pricing plans and service contracts. The new service will use more advanced hardware that can be equipped for a wide range of aircraft, including smaller jets. Inmarsat said existing SwiftBroadband customers will require minimal changes to their aircraft system to upgrade to SwiftJet.
SwiftJet will be offered alongside both SwiftBroadband and Inmarsat’s Jet ConneX service, which uses the Ka-band satellite constellation. Jet ConneX, for which Collins is also a distributor, has been installed on more than 1.350 aircraft worldwide.