The European Aviation Network is a hybrid-network built by

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...

and

Inmarsat Inmarsat is a British communications satellite, satellite telecommunications company, offering global mobile services. It provides telephone and data services to users worldwide, via portable or mobile terminals which communicate with groun ...

in cooperation with their technological partner

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

. It is used as a backhaul for in-flight

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

for domestic flights within

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and contains a

LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a mobile telephony standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement ** LTE Advanced Pro, a further enhancement * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers * Leukotrie ...

ground network supported by a satellite connection. Because of the LTE technology the network can achieve data rates up to 75 Mbit/s downstream and 20 Mbit/s upstream per airplane, with a total capacity of 50 Gbps. EAN Standorte EU

History

The European Aviation Network was first announced in 2015 by Deutsche Telekom and Inmarsat. At this point, the technological partner was still unknown. In 2017, Inmarsat launched the satellite for the network with an Ariane 5 rocket into the orbit and began shortly after with the testing. In January 2018 the three companies announced the commercial launch with the

International Airlines Group International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A., Trade name, trading as International Airlines Group and usually shortened to IAG, is a British-Spanish Multinational corporation, multinational airline holding company with its registered office in ...

as launch partner.

Technology

The ground network contains 300 LTE

cell site A cell site, cell phone tower, cell base tower, or cellular base station is a cellular frequencies, cellular-enabled mobile device site where antenna (electronics), antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed (typically on a Rad ...

s, which are spread across the 27 member states of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The custom EAN technology is adapted to the usage with

aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

, supporting

ground speed Ground speed is the horizontal component of the velocity of an aircraft relative to the Earth’s surface, also referred to as "speed over the ground". It is vital for accurate navigation that the pilot has an estimate of the ground speed that wil ...

s up to 1,200 km/h - way above the 500 km/h supported by LTE - and a maximum

flight level In aviation, a flight level (FL) is an aircraft's altitude as determined by a pressure altimeter using the International Standard Atmosphere. It is expressed in hundreds of feet or metres. The altimeter setting used is the ISA sea level pressur ...

(User height) of 12 km and the cell radius of up to 75 km. The remote radio heads inside the aircraft have been modified to compensate the frequency shift caused by the

Doppler effect The Doppler effect (also Doppler shift) is the change in the frequency of a wave in relation to an observer who is moving relative to the source of the wave. The ''Doppler effect'' is named after the physicist Christian Doppler, who described ...

. If the ground network is not available, e.g. over the sea, a satellite back-up takes over the connection. The aircraft are equipped with antennas on top (for the satellite connection) and at the bottom (for the EAN ground connection) of their

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

in order to support the network. Deutsche Telekom uses LTE frequency band 65 (2,100 MHz) for their ground network and Inmarsat the

S band The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the conventiona ...

satellite spectrum over Europe. The LTE network is completely independent and not linked with the national cell phone networks operated by DT group. It’s the first and only pan-European LTE network. The network uses the MCC/MNC tuple 901-53 assigned by the ITU to Deutsche Telekom.

Adoption

Airlines that already support the EAN on some aircraft: *

Aegean Airlines Aegean Airlines S.A. (legal name , ''Aeroporía Aigaíou'' ) is the flag carrier of Greece and the largest Greek airline by total number of passengers carried, by number of destinations served, and by fleet size. A Star Alliance member since Jun ...

Aer Lingus Aer Lingus ( ; an anglicisation of the Irish language, Irish , meaning "air fleet") is an Irish airline company which is the flag carrier of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded by the Irish Government, it was privatised between 2006 and 201 ...

(IAG) *

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

(IAG) *

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...

(IAG) *

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

Vueling Vueling S.A. (, ) is a List of airlines of Spain, Spanish low-cost airline based at Viladecans in Greater Barcelona with operating bases at Barcelona–El Prat Airport (main); Orly Airport, Paris-Orly Airport in Paris, France; Schiphol Airport, ...

(IAG)

References

External links

Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier

European Aviation Network
{{Deutsche Telekom Telecommunications infrastructure Deutsche Telekom Nokia