Story ID: 
Satcom Fit for a King
By: Stephen Pope
Caption: Panasonic Avionics yesterday introduced what it calls a “global communications suite” designed to provide world leader head-of-state aircraft with the ulti
Word Count: 142
Panasonic Avionics yesterday introduced what it calls a “global communications suite” designed to provide world leader head-of-state aircraft with the ultimate in airborne connectivity. Branded as eXConnect and eXPhone, the Ku-band satellite services will make their debut in a Boeing Business Jet within the coming weeks. Additional customer discussions are ongoing to outfit the hardware in the Airbus Corporate Jet and VIP versions of the Boeing 747 and 777. Panasonic said the Internet data service will be capable of guaranteed transfer speeds of up to 50 megabits per second, which is several times faster than a typical DSL connection. It will also broadcast live TV globally. The hardware and antenna for the service are the same as those developed for the air transport market. Panasonic provides the Ku service to Lufthansa, which plans to equip much of its long-range aircraft fleet in the next year.