American aviation firm Honeywell Aerospace and OneWeb Ltd have signed a memorandum of understanding under which Honeywell will provide aircraft equipment and airtime services to bring OneWeb’s planned satellite constellation to business, commercial and military aircraft.
OneWeb is building a constellation of more than 600 satellites, which will provide approximately 10 terabits per second of high-speed internet access to billions of people around the world, even in the most remote areas.
When launched, OneWeb’s constellation will be the largest telecommunications constellation in orbit. The constellation is expected to be operational in approximately four years.
Under the agreement, Honeywell will provide business jet, commercial airline and military aviation customers with aircraft hardware and airtime services that could include weather, navigation and health monitoring of the aircraft via the OneWeb satellite constellation. In addition, Honeywell will work with OneWeb to explore in-orbit satellite equipment supply for the 600-plus satellite constellation.
“At Honeywell, our goal is to expand in-flight connectivity through ambitious technology innovation,” said Carl Esposito, vice president, Marketing and Product Management, Honeywell Aerospace.
“Our mission is to enable affordable Internet access for everyone,” said Greg Wyler, chief executive officer, OneWeb Ltd.
“By partnering with Honeywell, we can bring the benefits of affordable, low-latency broadband to business, commercial and military aircraft.”
Global demand for fast in-flight connectivity continues to grow. In addition to this memorandum of understanding with OneWeb, Honeywell also signed an agreement with Inmarsat in 2012 to provide high-speed, global in-flight connectivity services to business, commercial and government aviation customers around the world.
