In 2018 Gogo introduced the AVANCE connectivity platform and the new technology represented a paradigm shift for inflight connectivity in business aviation. Since that time, AVANCE has been so well received that others in business aviation have caught the “platform” bug.
You see it in ads, marketing content, and sales pitches. Many technology players in business aviation are talking about the “latest and greatest platform” or “our new and improved (insert buzzword) platform.”
But what, specifically, is a technology platform? What does it do and what benefits must it provide to warrant that term?
To answer that question, we asked Gogo to see how it defines “platform,” and to explain how AVANCE meets the criteria.
Insight From the Experts
“A technology platform is a group of individual components brought together to make a cohesive unity,” said Jeremy Tyler, vice president of software applications engineering. “You bring in software, hardware and tools to create a consistent experience for the user. Apple is a great example.
“The Apple iOS operating system is the “brains” across its hardware, but Apple created an entire digital ecosystem where everything can be integrated, automatically synchronized through the cloud, and even updated between any Apple device,” he continued. “The result is a seamless, consistent “Apple” experience independent of what device you are using it on. AVANCE is very similar.
According to Gogo, AVANCE software is the “brains” on all of its systems – L3, L5 and SCS – and future products as well, such as global LEO broadband. Gogo uses one operating system that detects what systems and services it is connected to so every feature Gogo offers is available to every system.
“It doesn’t matter if our system is on a Gulfstream heavy-iron aircraft or a turboprop like a Pilatus PC-12, the experience is the same,” said Tyler. “And the benefit for aircraft owners, operators and passengers is that Gogo can get innovations and updates into their hands almost instantly: things that other providers have to do with hardware, which requires putting the aircraft down for a period of time for the change which takes time and is expensive, we can do over the air.”
In terms of hardware engineering, AVANCE is built modularly, and it’s designed to be what the company calls “plug and play" which makes it easy for customers to expand and upgrade their inflight Wi-Fi experience.
“When we create a new solution, we don’t have to start from scratch, we can simply use our base set of features,” said Chris Rippe, Gogo distinguished member of technical staff product development. “When we need to do an upgrade, we can design it once for the whole platform. 5G is a great example of this modular design. When a customer is ready to upgrade, they won’t have to remove any hardware to add 5G speed to their AVANCE L5 system – instead, they’ll simply plug a small Gogo X3 LRU into the AVANCE L5, much like how you’d connect a peripheral like a printer to your laptop.”
AVANCE also gives operators comprehensive inflight connectivity and entertainment in a single LRU that has been designed to be future-ready right out of the box which allows Gogo to:
- Easily add new networks such as Gogo 5G and the new global LEO broadband system
- Instantly deploy new services over the air
- Remotely deploy support and software updates over the air
- Quickly connect to and enable new third-party applications
“When we lowered our service altitude from 10,000 feet AGL to 3,000 feet, every AVANCE customer received that update over the air,” said Rippe. “Our customers never had to touch the aircraft or bring it down for that upgrade to be implemented, and Gogo is the only connectivity provider in business aviation with that capability.”