Scandinavian airline SAS signed a deal with ViaSat for provision of in-flight passenger connectivity as part of a roughly $60 million investment that also includes full cabin upgrades across its short- and medium-haul fleet, ViaSat said in a news release Thursday: It will let SAS offer onboard Wi-Fi speeds of 12 Mbps. The satellite company said the first aircraft with ViaSat in-flight connectivity will enter service in the second half of 2017.

Siemens Convergence Creators and Imagine Communications signed a deal to integrate Siemens' Smart Video Engine online video platform with Imagine's CloudXtream media and advertising delivery offering into what the two in a news release Thursday called "a complete, end-to-end solution" for over-the-top providers.

ViaSat and Finnair signed a deal for installation of an in-flight connectivity network on the air carrier's Airbus A320 short-haul fleet flying in Europe, with the equipment installation to be done by June 2018, ViaSat said in a news release Thursday. ViaSat said it partnered with Eutelsat to provide Europe-wide coverage of satellite-based broadband. It also said separately that its joint offering with Eutelsat is in customer trial stage with El Al Israel Airlines, with full retail service expected to begin before year's end.

Verizon Wireless announced LTE Advanced service promising 50 percent faster peak wireless data speeds in 461 cities. There’s no additional cost to customers for the software, which combines multiple channels to shoot data over the network more quickly, said Verizon in a Monday announcement. Verizon LTE Advanced uses carrier aggregation, which combines two or three channels of bandwidth into one larger channel to send data sessions over the most efficient route using a combination of 700 MHz, AWS and PCS spectrum, Verizon said. Customers will continue to experience typical download speeds of 5-12 Mbps, said the carrier, but two-channel carrier aggregation has shown peak download speeds of up to 225 Mbps, and three-channel carrier aggregation provides logged speeds greater than 300 Mbps.

Panasonic Avionics wants FCC approval to operate up to 1,000 single-panel antenna (SPA) broadband terminals on aircraft operating in U.S. airspace. In an International Bureau application Friday seeking to modify its existing earth stations aboard aircraft (ESAA) blanket license, Panasonic said the SPA terminal is a variation of the company's dual-panel Panasonic Phased Array (PPA) terminal that's part of its Ku-band eXConnect System and transmits in the same operational envelope, with the SPA terminals aimed at smaller aircraft than PPA terminals. The company also asked for a modification of its license to add the Telstar 12 Vantage as a point of communication for its SPA and PPA terminals. And it asked for removal of a condition on its license requiring Panasonic cease operations if a future non-geostationary fixed satellite service network starts operations until the company coordinates with that network operator or demonstrates Panasonic operations won't interfere. Panasonic said it sought the change since the FCC elevated ESAA networks to co-primary status in the 14-14.5 GHz band and because of previous commission precedent in removing a similar condition from an ESAA blanket license under similar circumstances.

Google delayed fiber builds in multiple California cities while it explores alternative technologies, said a staff report by the city of Palo Alto. It could be six months or more before Google resumes its fiber network build in the Bay Area, the report said: “Google indicated that they are exploring more innovative ways of deployment that overcome some of the challenges they are facing in their current builds. It is the City’s understanding that the cities of Mountain View, San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale are also being delayed.” A Google representative notified the Palo Alto staff about the delay July 18, the report said. “The fiber ball is entirely in Google’s court,” emailed a San Jose spokesman. “We’ve taken care of all the environmental, permitting, and land use procedural issues needed for them to move ahead whenever they’re ready to.” He said the city and Google Fiber have had “a strong, productive working relationship” over the past two years, and the city remains optimistic Google will move forward with its plans to extend fiber into San Jose, “even if their original schedule gets modified so they can take advantage of technology advances that might be potentially less disruptive.” The delay follows Google Fiber’s acquisition of Webpass, a California CLEC specializing in point-to-point wireless broadband that could be combined with fiber to spread high-speed Internet to more homes (see 1606230046). Google Fiber last month opened shop in Charlotte (see 1607120030), and in June said it’s eyeing Dallas for further expansion (see 1606140047). Google continues "to work with city leaders to explore the possibility of bringing Google Fiber to the South Bay area," a company spokeswoman said. "This means deploying the latest technologies in alignment with our product roadmap, while understanding local considerations and challenges, which takes time."

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton again touted her ambition to address broadband deployment in the first 100 days of her administration as part of her infrastructure plan. Her administration is “going to connect all American households to high-speed, affordable broadband,” Clinton said Monday during a Q&A on the social network Quora. “A recent survey showed that 70 percent of teachers assign homework that requires students to use the internet, but 5 million of our children don’t have access to high-speed internet. So, even at their earliest ages, kids are being left out and left behind. We can’t allow that.”

Comcast will roll out a pay-as-you-go TV and Internet service in four states in 2016 and nationwide in 2017, the company said in a news release. Xfinity Prepaid Services will let consumers sign-up for TV or Internet service and refill their subscription for seven or 30 day increments "any time they like," the cable ISP said. The initial rollout will be in Michigan, Georgia, Florida and Indiana, it said. Comcast will also offer the service at Boost Mobile locations, the company said.

Inmarsat moved to the next phase of building its European Aviation Network in-flight broadband service, the satellite company said in a news release Thursday. Thales Alenia Space completed on schedule the construction and subsystem tests of the satellite for EAN, Inmarsat said. The satellite will undergo more testing before it’s declared ready for flight in 2017, it said. "Once these tests are complete, the satellite will be prepared for launch by SpaceX at Cape Canaveral in Florida.” The satellite will provide mobile satellite services to aircraft flying over dense European routes, using Inmarsat’s 30 MHz S-band spectrum allocation in the 28 EU member states, Norway and Switzerland, Inmarsat said. That will be integrated with a LTE-based ground network covering about 300 sites, operated by Inmarsat partner Deutsche Telekom, and aircraft will be able to switch automatically between satellite and terrestrial with on-board network communicators, it said.

The number of cable ISP-provided Wi-Fi hot spots has reached 500,000 nationwide, NCTA said in a blog post Wednesday, citing the Cable WiFi Alliance. Saying that number has doubled in the past two years, NCTA said "that means more customers can experience near-ubiquitous broadband connectivity, and communities benefit knowing there is secure, reliable internet access already built out."