An outage linked to the cybersecurity platform CrowdStrike affected Microsoft IT systems worldwide on July 19, with major airlines, including Delta Air Lines, left picking up the pieces from massive flight cancellations, app malfunctions and lost baggage a week later.
Leighton Carroll, chief executive at Canadian communications technology company Baylin Technologies, was one of the passengers affected by canceled flights.
“The recent IT outage proves that quality connectivity counts within an airport to communicate and make arrangements in these types of situations,” Carroll, who was stuck in Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport last week, told Connectivity Business News following the event.
Carroll sits down with CBN in the latest episode of “The Dish” podcast to discuss how Galtronics, Baylin’s antenna-focused subsidiary, has capitalized on the demand for reliable airport connectivity.
The company has supplied its multibeam antennas for major airports undergoing network upgrades, including:
Whether travelers are stationary or walking in an airport, they’re almost always on their mobile devices or laptops, Carroll tells CBN. Their mobile devices are looking for a radio frequency signal as soon as they land, necessitating the right type of antenna to accommodate capacity needs.
For carriers working with Galtronics on airport upgrade projects, aesthetics also matter, he says, so indoor antennas in airports may be so small they blend into the ceiling.
Good connectivity should be so seamless that it’s unnoticeable, Carroll says.