Boeing Expands Satellite Broadband Service

According to reports, Connexion by Boeing, the satellite broadband Internet service for aircraft, is expanding its service for ships, The Boeing Co. said. Boeing has signed two-year leases with international satellite operator Intelsat for space on two of its satellites, one above the Atlantic Ocean and one above the Indian Ocean. The satellite capacity will be used to provide broadband Internet connections to customers in those regions, it said. Connexion by Boeing's satellite capacity has been largely focused to date on major air routes of its customer airlines. Boeing started talking about a maritime service in 2004 and in the middle of 2005 it announced a deal with Teekay Shipping Corp. to install Connexion by Boeing on 50 of the company's ships. Teekay, in Vancouver, Canada, operates a fleet of 140 tankers and transports more than 10 percent of the world's seaborne oil, according to Boeing. Links to ships will typically offer a 5M bps (bits per second) downstream connection from the satellite to the vessel and a 256K bps connection upstream, Connexion said last year when outlining the service.