Volume 41 | Thursday, January 13th, 2022

Considerations for Selecting Cabin Services

Welcome back to Jump Seat. This week, we want to help you out if you’re new to cabin services and in the holiday shopping mood. Or perhaps you've made a New Year's resolution to improve the cabin services for your aircraft. There are many options to choose from and we want to help you understand the differences.

When evaluating the various choices for high-speed cabin services, the top questions to answer are how and where you will be using the service. To begin with, you may consider adding a service for entertainment purposes that require a lot of streaming for movies and games. Another use may be to participate in virtual video conferences while on the flight. Another factor affecting the choice is how many people will be using the bandwidth simultaneously while in flight. All of this usage keeps adding up until you have reached the maximum bandwidth allowed thus forcing the network to start dividing that bandwidth up over the number of devices connected. These considerations along with what parts of the globe you travel will help determine what service is best for you.    There are 3 main high-speed services offered today:   Jet ConneX, or JX, is a service operating on the Inmarsat I-5 satellites around the globe with speeds up to 20 Mbps.  LuxStream is a service offered only from Collins Aerospace as a private network for business aircraft only. It operates with speeds up to 25 Mbps from Hawaii to CONUS while offering 15 Mbps around the rest of the world.   Viasat Ka offers a service with speeds around 20Mbs over CONUS, North Atlantic, and European regions with plans to expand this service globally over the next couple of years. Presently, there are no speed caps on the Viasat Ka service, allowing for increased speeds when available. Viasat also offers unlimited streaming with some data packages or as a chargeable option on others.   What speeds do you need?   As mentioned above, your needs may require minimal speed which can be achieved from most services with packages that are much easier on the budget and available around the globe. But if you need much higher bandwidth, you may need to focus on a specific service to reach that goal. The 15 to 30 Mbps services are not all alike when it comes to coverage. Remember that one of the key questions is where you will be using this bandwidth. Below is the coverage area for each of those services and where they are limited to. For instance, Luxstream is 25 Mbps over the CONUS but 15 Mbps globally. Viasat KA covers the CONUS and North Atlantic into Europe but would need a dual-band KA/KU system to get 10 Mbps outside of that region. The JX service can provide near-global coverage at 20 Mbps today. Each service has unique characteristics that may have direct impacts on how and where you will benefit the most.

How will you use the service?  This may still seem like a simple question but it does have a major impact on your choices. Do you plan to fly very often? Or do you fly randomly with no frequency? Are you doing charter operations with various users with various needs for bandwidth? The answers to those questions will influence the choices of service.    All services offer bandwidth at the best price per Mb when you sign yearly contracts. The contract and a commitment to large packages can even get you the unlimited streaming offered by Viasat KA. This is ideal if you have a need for that much data. But if you are not flying that often, it does not make sense to write checks for data usage when the aircraft is not flying.      This is where there is another valuable difference between the services.     JX packages include one-year and two-year contracts of various speeds and allotments.   LuxStream from Collins offers the same plans as both JX and Viasat along with an a la carte plan where you only pay for what you use. The real advantage is that if there is no data usage the subscriber is only billed for the minimum monthly service fee. But when the service is needed, it is there.  Viasat KA has similar plans but also offers monthly subscriptions allowing the subscriber to avoid long-term contracts.  What are the installation and hardware costs?    Ultimately, part of the decision may already be decided for you. To keep the installation charges down, it is best to choose a service that already has an STC for your aircraft. Many aircraft have access to all 3 services while some may only have 1 or 2. Our sales team will be glad to provide you with more information about which services are available for your aircraft.    In short, we recommend reviewing your goals for high-speed services so that you can weigh the unique characteristics of each service as it applies to your specific needs. The ability to match those goals along with the cost of installation and operation will go a long way to a positive experience for your passengers.

Did you know? This isn't our first article on Cabin Connectivity! To learn more, check out the other articles below: An Introduction to Jet ConneX An Introduction to LuxStream An Introduction to Viasat Ka Network Troubleshooting

Thank you for reading!

We want to invite you to take another tour of our upcoming webinar training events to expand your knowledge of new and existing features. Register for these sessions listed on the ARINCDirect Help and Training page.

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