Signify lights the way for Li-Fi in the sky

The lighting specialists at Signify, formerly Philips Lighting, have agreed to enter into a strategic partnership to bring light-powered, high-speed internet – known as Li-Fi – to the skies. The collaboration, which includes the French aircraft manufacturing experts at Latécoère and the South Korean aerospace and defense specialists at Huneed Technologies, is looking to integrate Signify’s Trulifi system on commercial flights.

Trulifi combines energy-efficient LED lighting with a reliable, secure and high-speed two-way wireless connection that offers speeds of up to 250 Mb/s for the downlink and the uplink. Additionally, it doesn’t interfere with sensitive equipment and the connection isn’t affected by the airplane’s movements. In phase 1, Trulifi will be used for the connection of the media players in the headrests. In the next phase, Li-Fi will enable passengers to connect their personal devices to the onboard media and Internet, but also interact with each other and have the same connectivity experience on board as on the ground.

“Through this partnership, Signify and Latécoère will transform the cabin experience for passengers by providing them the latest technology in connectivity,” comments Olivia Qiu, Chief Innovation Officer at Signify. “Trulifi offers enormous potential and our ambition is, in addition to aircraft, to provide this technology to other forms of public transport as well, so people have access to a reliable, secure and fast Internet connection, wherever they may be.”