Rockwell Collins and Boeing have joined forces to offer Collins
eXchange, which combines Collins' Airshow 21 onboard information
systems with the new Connexion by Boeing global broadband airborne
communications service. Launch customer is Bombardier, which will
certificate the system for the Global family in early 2005.
Rockwell Collins will provide most of the onboard hardware, including
the Airshow 21 information management and display system and the
newly introduced Tailwind 500 fin-mounted direct broadcast satellite
(DBS) TV antenna. Connexion by Boeing will provide a down-converter
box that will allow the DBS antenna to receive Ku-band data signals
from its own transponders.
An eXchange-equipped aircraft will be able to receive DBS programming
where available (not over the oceans, since fish don't watch TV)
and receive and send data at 5 Mb/second on to the airplane and
256 kb/second off the airplane in any area covered by Connexion.
Boeing has completed beta testing of Connexion and has signed
up many major international airlines, including Lufthansa, British
Airways and JAL, as Connexion customers. The company plans to
launch Connexion coverage over most of the northern hemisphere,
from Tokyo west to Los Angeles, next March, using leased Ku-band
transponders on existing satellites.
Connexion's high data rate will enable users on the aircraft to
access firewall-protected corporate intranets, download large
files and conduct videoconferences. Because there are fewer Internet
users on a corporate aircraft than on an airliner, eXchange does
not need to use the large antenna and other hardware that Boeing
supplies to airline users.
The business structure is also different from Connexion by Boeing,
where Boeing retains control of the onboard hardware and handles
the billing to individual passengers. In Collins eXchange, Rockwell
Collins will deal with the customers and pass service fees to
Boeing.
Under the new deal, Collins will have the exclusive right to use
Connexion by Boeing equipment and services in super-midsize (Citation
X and larger) and large business jets. Exclusivity does not extend
to bizliners like the BBJ, and Boeing notes that the larger number
of users on these aircraft might favor the standard Connexion
by Boeing system.
