Photo: Rockwell Collins, maker of the Iridium Certus terminals.

Iridium Communications announced it has selected Honeywell Aerospace, Skytrac, Avitek and Navicom Aviation as the first Iridium Certus service providers for the aviation industry. As Iridium Certus service providers, each company will be able to offer the new L-Band satellite connectivity to its customers via small form factor antennas provided by the Iridium network.

According to Iridiun, Certus will feature a range of throughput and service options including graphical weather reports, multi-user internet/VPN and Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) redundancy to flight data recorder streaming, video conferencing, and, upon formal approval, safety services. The company also stated Iridium Certus’ High-Gain Antenna (HGA) solutions will provide data speed options of up to 704 Kbps, and eventually as high as approximately 1.4 Mbps following full Iridium Next deployment, with an antenna size of approximately 24 by 10 by 6cm, while the Low-Gain Antenna (LGA) solutions will enable data speeds of up to 176 Kbps.

Initial flight trials will take place later this year, with commercial service introduction expected in mid-2019 for aviation users. The company is planning commercial service introduction for other verticals, such as maritime and land-mobile, for mid-2018.