Definition[]
Mobile Communications On-board Aircraft (MCA) technology is identical to normal mobile roaming in that airline passengers are billed through their service provider. The tariffs applied usually correspond to "Roaming: rest of the world" prices. Wi-Fi is also used for MCA but is not subject to specific rules because its low power does not pose interference risk with ground-based radio services.
MCA does not cover the communication between the aircraft and the ground which is currently provided by satellite-based systems. New satellites should allow ten times greater capacity than what is available today.
How the MCA system works[]
The signal is received by an antenna on board the aircraft and sent to the ground network via a satellite connection. The signal is limited in power to ensure it does not interference with other communications.
The system is based on three main parts: the mobile terminals, the Network Control Unit, and the aircraft base station.
- Mobile terminals on aircraft: passengers increasingly wish to use their 3G or 4G mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops etc.) on board aircraft to transfer data; the amount of data transferred on board already exceeds voice data.
- Network Control Unit (NCU): is mounted on board the aircraft and is a kind of jammer which prevents mobile terminals connecting to, and interfering with ground-based systems, and ensure they connect only to an Aircraft Base Station.
- Aircraft base station: the antenna to which mobile terminals connect; it takes the form of a cable running along the ceiling of the cabin.
Source[]
- European Commission, Surfing in the sky: Commission gives airlines green-light for 3G and 4G broadband services on board aircraft (Nov. 14, 2013) (full-text).