Iridium’s new Certus L-band satellite service, which runs on the company’s Next satellite network, is nearing the flight-test phase later this year and service entry for aviation users in mid-2019. In preparation for the new high-speed airborne connectivity network’s service entry, Iridium has selected Honeywell, Skytrac, Avitek, and Navicom Aviation as service providers.

Data speeds, as always, depend on antenna size and will range from up to 167 Kbps for a low-gain antenna to 704 Kbps for a high-gain antenna. Eventually, speeds of up to 1.4 Mbps will be possible.