Story ID: 
Onboard BlackBerry Demand Soars
By: Stephen Pope
Caption: Honeywell last month said it has installed on the company’s Gulfstream G550 a Wi-Fi com gateway that will allow passengers to use Blackberrys to send and r
Word Count: 122
Honeywell last month said it has installed on the company’s Gulfstream G550 a Wi-Fi com gateway that will allow passengers to use Blackberrys to send and receive e-mail in flight. The exercise is serving as a testing ground for new Wi-Fi services from Honeywell through its OneLink satcom service. Due for commercial availability in the third quarter, the service will use the mobile packet datalink of Inmarsat Swift64 and SwiftBroadband terminals to route e-mail traffic. Rockwell Collins also is preparing for an expected surge in passenger demand by readying its eXchange service for data connectivity using certain Wi-Fi enabled smartphones, such as the BlackBerry 8320 and 8820. Both companies say BlackBerry use is near the top of customers’ lists for desired communications services.