HAMBURG, Germany – Viasat, Türksat, and SkyFive Arabia are exploring a roaming framework designed to expand in-flight connectivity coverage across multiple regional networks.
The companies said the effort is intended to support aircraft operating across Europe, Türkiye, and parts of the Middle East and Africa. The initiative focuses on commercial airlines, business aviation operators, and other aircraft that regularly cross regional airspace boundaries.
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Air-to-ground and satellite network integration
The proposed arrangement would connect Türksat's planned air-to-ground network in Türkiye with existing connectivity services operated by Viasat and SkyFive Arabia. Air-to-ground systems transmit broadband data between aircraft and terrestrial infrastructure, providing lower-latency connections over land while complementing satellite coverage on longer routes.
The companies said the networks would operate within the same S-band spectrum allocation, a factor that could simplify roaming between service areas. Aircraft equipped for one participating network could potentially maintain connectivity while moving between adjacent coverage zones rather than relying on separate regional systems.
Combining terrestrial and satellite links has become increasingly common as providers balance bandwidth, latency, and network availability across different routes.
Expanding connectivity across regional airspace
Aircraft frequently transition between national and regional communications networks during international flights. Maintaining broadband service across those transitions can be challenging because aircraft often move between networks operated by different providers.
The companies said the roaming initiative is intended to enable service continuity across adjacent networks while making greater use of existing network assets. The approach could also reduce deployment complexity compared with developing dedicated networks for each operating region.
“Viasat recognizes the strong mutual value of collaborating on a joint roaming initiative to enable a seamless connectivity experience for our EAN airline customers operating over Türkiye and into the Middle East and Africa,” said Shameem Hashmi, senior vice president of strategy and market expansion at Viasat.
