2Ku antenna passes significant milestone

ThinKom’s ThinAir® Ku3030 antenna, branded as 2Ku by Intelsat, has logged more than 30 million hours of operational time on commercial aircraft.

“The 2Ku program really changed what was possible to deliver to an aircraft,” said Bill Milroy, ThinKom’s Chief Technology Officer. “We were really the first team to enable a streaming experience via a high-efficiency phased array antenna system. That was a game changer. And now, operating the third generation of the system, 2Ku is still acknowledged as being the most efficient, most reliable and most capable system available.”

Jeff Sare, President of Commercial Aviation at Intelsat, said: “2Ku is the lowest-profile and highest-performing antenna in the market. Our team has worked hard with airline partners and ThinKom to reach this critical milestone and deliver phenomenal in-flight reliability. It’s the most dependable product in the market, and airlines like that.”

As part of Intelsat’s 2Ku solution, ThinKom’s ultra-efficient phased arrays have delivered consistent connectivity to more than 100 million passengers on more than six million flights since inception.

The solution is being used by 19 major airlines and consistently supports over 98% total end-to-end system availability with industry-leading connectivity and throughput rates.