Air passenger telecom test

Air passenger telecom test

JAKARTA (JP): British Telecommunications and Racal/Honeywell have announced the completion of the world's first interactive passenger services transmission over satellite.

In a statement made available yesterday, British Telecommunications reported that a selection of passenger orders were exchanged over satellite between an in-cabin simulator at Racal/Honeywell and British Telecommunications' airline interactive services processing center in Portsmouth, Britain.

The test used the Skyphone satellite network, which was developed by British Telecommunications, Singapore Telecom and Norwegian Telecom, and British Telecommunications' ground earth station. The technology will lead to the seamless communications between software, on-board avionics, the satellite and the processing center on the ground.

A number of international airlines including Singapore Airlines, British Airways and Lufthansa are scheduled for the installation program later this year.(icn)