The Third Chapter of IFC

John Wade, Vice President of Panasonic Avionics’ Connectivity Business Unit, shares his thoughts on the evolution of in-flight connectivity, the challenges that airlines face in implementing it, and more in an exclusive interview with Avionics International.

Avionics International: How would you describe Panasonic’s approach to in-flight connectivity?

John Wade: There are a number of things that became especially clear in light of what happened to ViaSat-3A [the satellite developed an unexpected fault during deployment]. It's very sad that the industry has lost this satellite, but it does bring clarity to some of the things that Panasonic has felt for a while were important. And one of those, as we move into the future, is that there is a new era of satellites that have been launched, including constellations like SpaceX's Starlink and OneWeb’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation. Panasonic has become a partner with Oneweb and is promoting that network.

The first thing I’ll mention is satellite resiliency. This, unfortunately, is not the first time that a satellite has been lost. There was one a few years ago called Intelsat 29E, which is another significantly sized geostationary orbit (GEO) satellite, which was a terrible loss. That really strained the networks for a while. But when we get into these constellations where there are hundreds, if not thousands, of satellites, they are far more resilient to the loss of a single asset than the traditional satellites. We like that idea of resiliency, and that's because IFC is becoming really important to airlines. That's a key theme in terms of what we see—the growth in IFC. It's gone from being a "nice to have," to a must-have.

Certainly post-COVID, passengers are demanding a much higher level of IFC capabilities than in the past, and outages are becoming increasingly intolerable. These LEO constellations offer significant resiliency in terms of their ability to respond to issues like this. OneWeb's got something like 40 in-orbit spare satellites right now, so you wouldn't see an issue like that affecting their network.

The other really important aspect of what we see happening with these new generations of satellites is much lower latency. For load times of different websites, the difference is very significant—three or fourfold, in some instances. And it's not just about web browsing. Applications are becoming more cloud-centric. These applications are going back and forth to the internet more than they would in the past. That latency also impacts enterprise applications and the use of your mobile phone.

As far as Panasonic's view of positioning around IFC for the future, it's what we call “leading with LEO”: we will lead with using LEO services. We're taking a multi-orbit philosophy: we will be using LEO until we can't. Where we can't is in some cases based on coverage. In airspace over China and Russia right now, you can't operate LEO services, so aircraft will need to be able to use LEO and GEO.

Over hub cities, there is still a question mark over whether or not there's sufficient capacity in the LEO networks to support hundreds of aircraft simultaneously. That's where the ability to offer both LEO and GEO at the same time means that we're able to augment our LEO network with a GEO network and assure the airlines they're going to have coverage and capacity available.

Avionics: You touched on how in-flight connectivity has become a must-have. How have you seen it evolve over the past few years, and how do you see that continuing to evolve in the future?

Wade: I have been involved in IFC for over 20 years. Back then, you couldn't find an aircraft with connectivity. Then I joined Gogo, which was one of the leading companies in driving the early stages of connectivity. It was difficult at that time to get airlines to think about getting IFC. It was sort of a distraction, and they weren't really that interested in it, except in business aviation.

Now we've reached this point where, certainly in North America, it's hard to find an aircraft without connectivity today. It’s still slightly hit-or-miss and a slightly frustrating experience. It's getting better, but it's still not reached what I think is primetime. And that's all about to change.

The evolution of these new satellites is going to bring capacity that we just did not have access to in the past. With increased capacity comes reduced cost. The services are going to become a lot better in terms of throughput and become a lot more affordable.

Now, this is the strongest growth period that I've seen. I think it's only poised to accelerate from here on through the rest of this decade. I like to think it is the third chapter of IFC. We're very excited about what that is going to look like for Panasonic and indeed for the other IFC providers and for passengers. I think this industry is about to change in a way that we've all been hoping for for the past 20 years.

Avionics: What are some of the challenges that airlines face in approaching the implementation of in-flight connectivity?

Wade: The challenge they face is deciding on the next generation of system they want to install. The traditional GEO systems were [previously] the only thing we had access to, and now the airlines are facing a decision because not every IFC provider has access to low-latency solutions. Airlines are trying to decide if low latency is important, how to ensure that they have coverage and capacity, and setting the right cost points so the passengers or the airline feel that they're getting value.

Beyond that, there are issues of ensuring reliability. I don't think every system out there has been particularly reliable. But again, that's all changing. A company like Panasonic has a very capable maintenance organization, and I think that gives the airlines confidence that the system they pick from Panasonic is going to be able to be supported by the global capability we've got in terms of ensuring that both IFC and IFE [in-flight entertainment] systems are well maintained on aircraft.

Avionics: Is your team working on any innovations or developments related to IFC?

Wade: It really is all around multi-orbit, low latency solutions. That's this evolution in terms of IFC that I think is going to be very significant. Our teams are focused on the development and getting ready for the production and installation of these multi-orbit solutions.

Avionics: Do you expect any technological advancements or developments that will impact the big picture of IFC in the longer term?

Wade: It's not just the satellites, it's the new antennas. Everybody's looking at electronically steerable arrays [ESAs]. We expect our first ESA implementation to be ready for production late next year. We've partnered with Stellar Blu, a company that's developing that terminal, and we are very excited about the introduction of those flat-panel antennas.

I think we'll also see increasing data speeds; modems are getting more efficient. I think there's going to be ongoing development in those two areas. And all of that is going to yield better service and lower costs. Within 10 years, most people will be connecting on most airplanes most of the time.

One of the areas that we think is an important development for ease of connectivity is that today, it's quite a difficult experience to get connected. You have to log in or register, decide what price plan you want, and put in your credit card information.

We have this company under Panasonic Avionics called AeroMobile which has great relationships with about 380 cellular companies around the world. If you happen to be on a Panasonic aircraft that has that cellular system on board, your phone automatically connects when you walk onboard, and the bill is passed directly onto your cell phone bill.