Originally Posted by
parishiltons
There's lots of things to consider in this discussion. First, CPDLC capability is largely limited to western built civil heavy and super aircraft. Most military and the overwhelming number of narrowbodies do not carry it (Easyjet exception noted). Yes, there is some mouse work required by ATC to compose and send a CPDLC message that is by its nature slower than voice. The next factor is PBC. ATC separation standards are based on lots of things, one of which is the communications capabilities and speed between ATC and flights. While CPDLC is considered to be a form of DCPC, for the purposes of PBC and determination of separation standards it ranks lower than VHF voice because it is slower (as is SATPHONE) - has anyone tried vectoring by CPDLC or SATPHONE, for example? Having said that, it ranks higher than third party HF comms. CPDLCs greatest advantage lies in those regions that are outside VHF coverage - predominantly in oceanic areas. I can see less use of voice in the future, but our systems are not ready for it in a global sense yet.
Dear Parishiltons,
A lot depends on the region, centre/system and AO. And even more factors. Where in your situations it might not be quicker in other situations it can.
As stated above by Jagohu in Maastricht there are quite a number of situations where it can and is quicker. Specially with certain crews and AO's.
Within Europe the deadline for ANSP's to use CPDLC was the 5th of Feb 2018. And although still many centre's are increasing their CPDLC potential every day there is more and more exposure to crews. For AO's the deadline is the 5th of Feb 2020.
And another benefit it that during the time you are using the frequency to address one particular aircraft you can still address another (or more) aircraft using CPDLC. And it is not limited just to the one controller. Certain tasks can be delegated meaning there are more (lines of) communications possible at the same time vs the use of frequency only. Specially in dense traffic areas the RT time is one of the main bottleneck's in determining the amount of traffic that is acceptable within the airspace.
Another one to consider is the difference in working of ATN and FANS1/A. And the type of connection.
This all can have an impact on how you perceive CPDLC to work or to experience how "quick" it is.