Thales and SES: What now for ViaSat / Inmarsat partnerships?

Dominique Giannoni, CEO Thales InFlyt Experience.

Thales’ announcement that it is partnering with SES on regional Ka-band inflight connectivity over the Americas posed more questions than it answered.

After a one-hour long press/teleconference journalists were left wondering what this now means for Thales’ relationship with both Inmarsat and ViaSat on Ka-band connectivity. Luckily, a further press conference for aviation journalists gave the opportunity to ask more questions.

Dominique Giannoni, CEO Thales InFlyt Experience, said: “Our agreement with SES will provide a future-proofed solution. We are fully funded and fully committed to this market, which will be attractive to airlines.

“Airlines want partners they can rely upon and we already have strong relationships with them.

“This system has been designed for inflight connectivity from the ground-up.”

Elias Zaccack, Senior Vice President, Commercial Americas at SES, said this was the “biggest deal ever” in the field of inflight connectivity.

Zaccack said that SES has now completed the acquisition of O3B, which gives it access to both GEO (geostationary) and MEO (medium orbit) Ka-band satellites.

“We could supplement SES-17 with beams from other satellites as demand shifts,” he said. “We have redundancy and scalability too. Our system is also open, so can take advantage of future changes in antenna design for example.

“We are working on antennas and tracking systems, both mechanical and electrically, that could work with both GEO and MEO satellites. We expect to start with a mechanically-steered antenna, but could move to a flat-panel solution in a few years.

“Our offering to the airlines is the standard by which the others will be measured. The coverage of SES-17 will be from the tip of Argentina to the Arctic Ocean, so it will appeal to fleet managers,” Zaccack said.

So what else do we know after the two press conferences with the company after this morning’s SES announcement?

How does this impact Thales’ relationship with Inmarsat and GX Aviation?

Thales has always said that it is horses for courses. If it were fulfilling a Ka-band solution in North America it would look to its regional offering with ViaSat. A solution over Europe could either be fulfilled with Ka via Eutelsat or via GX. A global solution would naturally fall into Inmarsat’s remit with its three-satellite GX solution.

Patrice Caine, Chairman and CEO, Thales Group, said in a teleconference today that the SES deal was “compatible” with its existing contracts and relationship with Inmarsat.

Giannoni later said that it was heavily invested in Inmarsat’s GX Aviation Ka-band connectivity, especially with line-fit solutions on long-haul aircraft.

“We see our agreement with SES as being complementary to our existing relationship with Inmarsat on GX, through which we are pursuing a number of opportunities worldwide.”

What about Thales’ regional Ka solutions with ViaSat?

Thales has been operating regional Ka over North America for some time through what was LiveTV, now Thales Inflyt Experience.

Its LiveTV acquisition gave it instant access to Ka-band systems with ViaSat.

In the later teleconference devoted to aviation journalists, Giannoni said that it had 500 Ka-band installations with two airlines, but how its contract with ViaSat will evolve would be up to the airlines (JetBlue and United).

“The airline’s contracts are with Thales with ViaSat as a supplier. What is important is that the service to our airlines is not impacted,” he said.

This suggests that future regional Ka contracts over the Americas will be fulfilled by the SES satellites and equipment.

How fast will the SES-17 Ka-band connectivity be?

While ViaSat talks of 12Mbps to every passenger and Inmarsat talks of up to 50Mbps to the aircraft no figures have been mentioned with the SES satellite.

Caine said he “didn’t want to spend too much time on the figures”, but it will deliver a similar service in the air to that “experienced on the ground via a fibre-optic internet connection”.

Who will provide the ground segment infrastructure for the service?

Neither Thales or SES would be drawn on that question.

Who are the likely customers for FlytLIVE?

Thales said it had started discussions with many leadings airlines in the US.

What will be the coverage of the SES-17 satellite?

Around 200 spot beams will cover North, South and Central America, plus the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean. It will also have wide-beams for live TV.

What is the timeline?

FlytLIVE is due to start service in 2017 using two existing SES satellites – probably AMC-15 and SES-10, which is due to launch in the fourth quarter of this year. SES-17 is slated for launch in 2020 and will augment the other two satellites.

How does Thales see inflight connectivity growth in the Americas?

Caine said that it predicted a “three-fold increase” in aircraft being connected by 2025. At the end of 2015 there were around 5,300 connected aircraft in the world. SES predicts this will grow to more than 23,000 by 2025.

Thales also predicts a greater take-up by passengers over the same period. He said that the Americas is the “largest regional market in the world”.

Will other suppliers like Panasonic/Gogo have access to the SES-17 payload?

No, both Panasonic and Gogo are committed to Ku-band, not Ka. And SES says the SES-17 payload will be exclusively for Thales Inflyt Experience and FlytLIVE.

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