- "WiFi-Inflight" supports convenient surfing for air travelers
- Hotspots provided for short and mid-range routes in Europe
- Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines starting next phase of testing
- Free of charge WiFi for Deutsche Telekom’s contract customers in Germany from the launch of commercial service until June 30, 2017
Deutsche Telekom enables surfing through the Internet anytime and anywhere – even above the clouds: Soon passengers on short and mid-range flights in Europe can have convenient access to the Internet just like at home. Initially Deutsche Telekom and its partners Lufthansa and Inmarsat are offering this service on select Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines aircraft, and will then extend it to include the entire Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and Eurowings fleet in Europe. On intercontinental flights, Deutsche Telekom has been providing WiFi-based Internet since 2010.
"With this solution, Deutsche Telekom, Lufthansa and Inmarsat are collaborating to bring the Internet to air travelers in Europe. Surfing above the clouds on European short and mid-range flights will soon be a matter of course," says David Fox, Vice President Inflight Services & Connectivity at Deutsche Telekom. "We want to offer our customers the best network – anywhere and anytime – which is why we are expanding our offering step by step."
Access via WiFi passes
The easy-to-use service login portal is supported by the Deutsche Telekom WiFi platform and is available to all passengers on board until the end of the test phase free of charge. Three different WiFi passes will be offered following commercial launch: FlyNet Messaging for 3 euros, FlyNet Surfing for 7 euros and FlyNet Streaming for 12 euros.
What's more, the service can be used via WiFi roaming or other telecommunications providers based on passengers' personal WiFi access data – it's all quite easy and convenient.
After the commercial launch of the service, Deutsche Telekom will have an introductory offer in Germany for its mobile contract customers: WLAN access is free of charge for all services until Jun 30, 2017. "With the free introductory offer, our customers can now easily test surfing in the aircraft. We know this is very interesting for many of our customers and are extremely pleased that we can now meet this need," says Marion Hagen, head of segment marketing for Telekom Deutschland's private customers.
Flying high above the clouds
Deutsche Telekom has been working on solutions to enable surfing on aircraft for some time now. Since the introduction of "WiFi-Inflight" on Lufthansa long-haul routes in 2010, Deutsche Telekom has established partnerships with 13 airlines which now offer the Internet service – Aer Lingus, Air France, China Airlines, Etihad, EVA, Garuda Indonesia, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Malindo Air, Scoot, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.
Together with its partners, Deutsche Telekom is promoting Internet access in European airspace through two major projects: The satellite-based Global Xpress (GX) service, as well as the European Aviation Network (EAN), an intelligent combination of a dedicated ground network and satellite communications with an expected transmission rate of up to 75 Mbps per aircraft. The EAN project was announced by Deutsche Telekom and Inmarsat in 2015, with commercial launch scheduled for 2017.
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