In addition EAN will use sites in offshore wind farms within the coastal waters of Germany and the Netherlands, and one more is already operational onshore in Norway.
Rolf Nafziger, senior VP of Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier, said: “With the installation of eight more antenna sites in and around the North Sea, we are proud to bring additional network capacity to an already exceptional connectivity service.”
EAN, which Deutsche Telekom and Inmarsat set up three years ago, already uses 300 4G base stations across Europe to connect with passenger aircraft directly. Outside the range of the 4G network, Eutelsat connects the aircraft.
Nafziger said: “The European Aviation Network gives European aviation a global advantage: Airlines get high speed and scalable connectivity with low operating costs and pan-European coverage. Passengers get a seamless service that is as good as a broadband connection on the ground.”
The new sites are concentrated in high-density flight routes between the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway.
The five new sites are co-located on the top of existing communication infrastructure on offshore production platforms and therefore benefit from Tampnet’s extensive fibre network in the area.
Tampnet operates an offshore high-capacity, low latency communication network, covering the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Two years ago it acquired BP’s 1,200km subsea cable network in the Gulf of Mexico.
Tampnet CEO Elie Hanna, a former Ericsson executive, said: “Tampnet will support the project by delivering fibre backhaul and maintenance to the base stations providing additional coverage to the airspace above the North Sea. The fact that the network is fully supported by our subsea network ensures its scalability for future capacity needs.”
Deutsche Telekom notes that the equipment was “brought in via helicopter in often challenging weather conditions and installed according to stringent security requirements on the offshore production platforms”.
