Telenor Satellite Services today announced that initial testing is completed and is in the final stages of in-flight testing of its latest global aeronautical communications service, Swift Mobile Packet Data Service (MPDS).
Based on Inmarsat’s Swift64 technology, Telenor’s aeronautical MPDS will deliver a new resource-efficient and cost-effective data communications capability via satellite, providing customers with another tool for conducting business in flight.
Telenor’s Swift MPDS offers the flexibility of mobile packet data service, giving aeronautical customers the benefit of paying only for the data they transmit and receive.
Packet data technology enables satellite resources to be shared, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing costs. MPDS is particularly valuable for customers using global Internet applications including Web access, file transfer, and e-mail.
Upon successful evaluation of the service, Telenor and Inmarsat plan to make the service available commercially.
“Telenor is an industry leader in developing, testing, and offering the latest communications technologies and value-added applications to our customers,” said Tore Hilde, chief executive officer of Telenor Satellite Services.
“Telenor was the first to offer global aeronautical high-speed data service and cost-efficient in flight voice capability using our Swift service. And now, Telenor will lead the way by introducing the next generation of Inmarsat’s aeronautical service to the aviation community.”
With the commercial launch of Swift ISDN service in April of 2002, Telenor was the first to offer global aeronautical high-speed data communications, and the first to combine economical voice calling with Swift high-speed data technology.
