Aircell on board for in-flight LTE

Yet another CDMA operator has thrown in its lot with the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) camp, though it’s not among the traditional service providers such as Sprint and Alltel. Aircell, a provider of broadband wireless services to commercial and private aircraft, announced its intentions to deploy LTE today, sizably boosting the capacity of its CDMA EV-DO network.

Aircell runs a 92-cell-site network pointed toward the heavens that blankets US airspace with a 3G signal. American Airlines, Virgin Airlines and numerous private companies use specially adapted EV-DO modems to connect to that network and then redistribute the broadband connection through plane cabins using WiFi.

However, Aircell’s specialty 800 MHz/900 MHz license is for only 1.5 MHz on the uplink and downlink, giving it room for a single EV-DO channel at 3.1 Mb/s. For now, that’s plenty to meet the needs of the still-nascent airborne broadband communications market, said Joe Cruz, chief technology officer for Aircell. But as the market grows, the company will need more capacity.

As more customers log in on aircraft and start using higher bandwidth applications such as streaming video, Aircell wants to fatten the pipe it offers to each plane. It is negotiating with the FCC to receive another 5 MHz, which it plans to use solely for a downstream LTE connection, providing 22 Mb/s of capacity. Like its EV-DO network supplied by ZTE and Qualcomm, the LTE infrastructure will require some modification to account for Aircell’s huge cell radiuses—spanning 150 to 250 miles—and the 600 mph speeds of the aircraft. Those modifications are fairly straightforward once the equipment is commercially available, Cruz said, adding that Aircell is already in discussions with vendors.

“We have to follow where the big guys are going,” Cruz said. “That way we are assured of terrestrial equipment, even though we have to modify it.” Verizon Wireless, Alltel and many other global operators’ decision to pursue LTE for 4G was crucial in Aircell’s own decision. While WiMAX networks are gaining traction, those CDMA operators’ commitment to LTE will ensure both infrastructure and low-cost dual-mode silicon are available to Aircell in the future as well as give Aircell an assured evolutionary path toward higher capacity when it chooses to expand, Cruz said.