Gogo Business Aviation said it is gaining momentum as the company and its partners prepare to inaugurate its global low-earth-orbit (LEO) broadband service, which is expected to deliver an "order-of-magnitude" improvement in in-flight connectivity.
OneWeb, Gogo’s satellite network provider, finished building out its broadband constellation in March with the launch of the final 36 satellites, bringing the number of satellites in its network to 618. Of those, only 588 are needed to provide global coverage, and the other units will provide added resiliency and redundancy, according to OneWeb. Another 15 spare satellites are scheduled to launch on May 19. The company is on track to have its new broadband network operational by first-quarter 2024.
Also, Hughes Network Systems recently announced that it has completed the preliminary design review for the electronically-steerable aircraft antenna assembly that it will provide exclusively to Gogo for the LEO broadband service. This antenna can be installed on aircraft of all sizes—including business jets that are too small to use existing commercial high-speed satellite broadband solutions. According to Gogo, almost 30,000 business jets worldwide are flying without broadband connectivity today.
Customers interested in using Gogo’s LEO broadband service in their aircraft can get a head start by installing an Avance connectivity platform. When Gogo launches the service, customers with Avance systems will need to add only the Hughes antenna to get connected.
“Because we have strong partners in OneWeb and Hughes, we’re ahead of schedule, and we continue to make tremendous progress on the development of the system components,” said Gogo president and COO Sergio Aguirre.