Satcom and inflight connectivity

This category covers satellite communications and inflight connectivity: the terminal, the modem, the antenna system and the service behind them. The antenna on its own is a separate guide, cabin entertainment is another, and the operator selling wifi to passengers is not a supplier of it. What makes this category different from the rest of avionics is that the hardware is the smaller half of the decision.

Hardware is approved, service is contracted

An article can hold a technical standard order authorisation, which is a design and production approval, and the FAA says clearly that it is not approval to install and use the article on an aircraft.¹ The installation is a separate approval, and a major change to type design by anyone other than the type certificate holder needs a supplemental type certificate.² Ask which STC covers your make, model and series, who holds it, and what the licence to use it costs per aircraft. Then ask the different question that decides satisfaction: what is being promised on the service side, in numbers. Committed information rate, not peak rate. Coverage by region and by flight level. Behaviour at high latitudes. What happens over water. What the contract says when the network is congested.

Aerodynamics, weight and the airframe

A radome and its adapter plate change the aircraft. Ask for the drag and fuel-burn penalty in the configuration you fly, and ask whether the number is measured or estimated. Ask for the installed weight, including provisions, wiring and the racks. Ask what structural work the installation requires and what it does to the maintenance programme afterwards. The holder of a design approval must furnish instructions for continued airworthiness to the owner of each affected product, so ask to read them before signing: they tell you the inspections, intervals and tasks the installation adds for as long as you own the aircraft.³

The support term is the real contract

Connectivity hardware generations turn over faster than airframes. Ask how long the supplier commits to supporting the terminal you are buying. Ask what a network change means for your hardware, who pays for the upgrade, and whether your service agreement survives it. Ask what the exit looks like: term, early termination charges, and whether the equipment is usable on another network afterwards. Ask what happens to the installation approval if you change service provider, because the STC and the airtime often come from different companies with different interests.

Where the record can be checked

Supplemental type certificates and TSO authorisations are published and searchable, so the approval half of any pitch can be verified before a contract.⁴ The register proves what has been approved and on which aircraft. It proves nothing about network performance, and no register anywhere carries the throughput a passenger will actually see. For that, ask the supplier for measured data from aircraft flying your routes, and ask two operators who already fly the system.

Questions that sort suppliers

Ask for the STC number, the holder and the per-aircraft licence fee. Ask for the committed rate and coverage in the contract, not in the brochure. Ask for the instructions for continued airworthiness the installation adds. Ask what the total cost is over five years, hardware, installation, downtime and airtime together.