Story ID: 
SmartSky Shuts Down Connectivity Network
By: Matt Thurber
Caption: Move leaves owners of SmartSky systems with orphaned hardware and no more service
Word Count: 601
After spending years and hundreds of millions of dollars building an air-to-ground (ATG) airborne connectivity network to compete with industry pioneer Gogo, SmartSky Networks announced that it “has ceased business operations effective August 16, 2024.” A company statement posted on its website blamed lack of additional financing for the shutdown.Like most in the business aviation industry, an aviation manager in New York was taken by surprise by the shutdown. His company had installed a SmartSky system in the principal’s airplane in February at a total cost of $150,000. “[The] system performance is great,” he posted on Facebook. “[It] blows away Gogo L5. [I’m] not looking forward to this conversation with the owner on Monday.”The SmartSky service promised faster connectivity compared to Gogo’s original ATG. SmartSky’s network went live at the end of 2021 and into early 2022. The service had been delayed for many years as SmartSky built a network of towers in the U.S. and fought court battles over the network technology’s patents, including complaints against Gogo, but installations in turboprops and business jets seemed to pick up as more dealers signed up and supplemental type certificates were approved for SmartSky installations.Employing patented “beamforming” technology, SmartSky claimed that each aircraft using the network would have its own beam and switch from beam to beam, maintaining high-speed bandwidth for that aircraft instead of having to share it with others. Two sizes of equipment were available, SmartSky Lite for smaller aircraft, and the Flagship system for midsize jets and larger. The Lite system, with sustained speed of 3 to 6 Mbps and peak over 15 Mbps, was priced at about $60,000. Flagship sold for about $120,000 and delivered sustained speed of 5 to 10 Mbps and peak over 20 Mbps. Service plans included Lite at $995 (hourly) to $3,495 (unlimited) and Flagship: $3,495 per month for 5 GB, $299 per GB overage, with other plans topping out at $9,995 per month unlimited with no overage.None of the dealers or others contacted by AIN could confirm how many SmartSky installations had taken place before the shutdown. However, some did provide information that suggests installations never reached a significant number. Fleet operator Volato had planned to equip its HondaJets with SmartSky. “Luckily, we only had the first one installed,” Volato co-founder and CEO Matt Liotta told AIN. “We had five more scheduled for this year, but aircraft [delivery] delays saved us in that case.”One dealer said it had installed one SmartSky system. Another said, “We had just been added to the dealer network for SmarkSky within the past two weeks. We had never even quoted a single job or ordered any parts. We did have one customer who was interested in the system but again, we had not progressed past the discussing phase.” Another large business aviation MRO facility said it had not installed any SmartSky systems since becoming a dealer. The same was the case for a large MRO company with multiple bases, which told AIN, “There wasn’t a lot of interest in it.” Davinci Jets had announced plans to equip its entire fleet with SmartSky systems and had accomplished some installations, but the company did not respond to AIN’s queries. SmartSky co-founder and president Ryan Stone was previously chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Davinci Jets, and he told AIN he couldn’t comment on the shutdown.AIN tried to contact the email that was published on the SmartSky website after it announced the shutdown, but there has been no reply. AIN also asked Honeywell about its relationship with SmartSky and plans for customers but received no reply. Honeywell Forge was the customer support provider for SmartSky., plain_text