Dubai (TAN): Emirates will improve its mobile phone reception, live television broadcast, and Wi-Fi connectivity on flights crossing the North Pole and the Arctic Circle.
Several Emirates flights that are headed to the United States travel over the pole which can disrupt connectivity for up to four hours. As most satellites are located over the equator, ‘the aircraft antennae cannot see the satellite when in the far north, due to the earth’s curvature’.
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This issue could now be solved, with Emirates collaborating with British satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat which will add two elliptical orbit satellites. The service is scheduled to be available by 2022 with the satellites providing coverage over the North Pole.
“We are very pleased with this development, which will ensure Emirates continues to lead the industry in providing our customers a seamless in-flight connectivity experience across geographies, on all of our flight routes,” Emirates’ Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer Adel Al Redha said.
“Over the years, we have worked closely with Inmarsat and our supply partners to continually raise the bar on in-flight connectivity, and we look forward to further enhancing that experience, taking advantage of new technologies and infrastructure,” he added.
The new satellites will enable passengers to watch live television while flying over the polar region.
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Inmarsat Aviation President Philip Balaam said: “Inmarsat has an extremely successful track record of working with Emirates to ensure their in-flight connectivity requirements are met on a global basis, both in the cockpit and the cabin. We are delighted to continue that tradition with the rapid development of our Global Xpress (GX) satellite network.”
“In the past month alone, we have announced even more capacity being added to the network with five additional payloads, including these latest two for flights over the northern latitudes and Arctic region. This is a great fit for Emirates and once again they have played an important role in our decision for these latest expansions,” he added.
