Gogo Business Aviation to
Launch LEO Global Broadband Service
May 22, 2022
Gogo Business Aviation will
launch the first global broadband service in
business aviation to use an electronically steered
antenna (ESA) on a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite
network.
Gogo’s exclusive antenna
assembly, designed in conjunction with Hughes
Network Systems, LLC (Hughes), will be small enough
for installation on the fuselage of business
aircraft from super light jets and large turboprops
to ultralong-range jets, and will operate on
OneWeb’s high-speed, low-latency broadband global
network.
To access the network, the new
service will require just one Gogo AVANCE LRU inside
the aircraft, which means existing AVANCE customers
will only have to install the ESA antenna, with a
single cable for power in, and a single cable for
data out.
“This will be a fast and
affordable broadband system that will provide
best-in-class global performance on the broadest
range of aircraft in business aviation,” said Sergio
Aguirre, Gogo Business Aviation’s president and
chief operating officer. “We want to give everyone
in business aviation the ability to have an
exceptional broadband experience regardless of where
they fly, or what size aircraft they fly.”
The OneWeb network will deliver
performance comparable to terrestrial broadband
services, with game-changing low latency that is
significantly less than geostationary satellites
(GEOs). A multitude of users will be able to
simultaneously perform data-heavy interactive online
activities such as conducting simultaneous live
video conferences, accessing cloud solutions such as
Office365, watching live TV, streaming video
applications like TikTok, and much more.
“Our agreement with Gogo
Business Aviation represents a leap forward for
business aviation connectivity,” said Ben Griffin,
vice president Mobility at OneWeb. “By harnessing
the power of our LEO constellation to deliver
robust, consistent, and reliable global coverage,
OneWeb and Gogo will be able to offer an unmatched
experience to business jet operators and passengers
worldwide.”
OneWeb’s LEO constellation is
fully funded and will consist of 648 satellites, 428
of which have already been launched.
“The world has been waiting for
a high performance, cost-effective, flat panel
antenna solution to realize the global, high-speed,
low-latency promise of LEO satellite broadband – and
Hughes has delivered,” said Reza Rasoulian, vice
president, Hughes. “Gogo’s selection of the Hughes
ESA solution affirms our engineering excellence and
unlocks the value of OneWeb’s global capacity for
high-speed, inflight broadband anywhere on the
planet.”
Unlike GEO solutions, Gogo’s
LEO service will include one fuselage-mounted unit
with an integrated antenna, modem, power supply and
RF converter; will only require 28 volts of DC
power; will not rely on aircraft-positioning data;
and will include an AVANCE router.
“We’ve designed the system to
reduce costs by simplifying the installation,”
Aguirre continued. “We have long delivered
affordable, high-quality connectivity, and
award-winning customer service to aircraft owners in
North America, and now we want to bring those same
benefits to all aircraft owners in the rest of the
world.”
For customers with an AVANCE L3
or L5 system in North America, the unique
multi-bearer capability of the AVANCE platform will
allow Gogo to combine capacity from OneWeb’s LEO
satellite network with Gogo’s ATG network to deliver
even higher capacity than LEO alone can provide.
The Gogo broadband service for
business aviation will be available soon after the
OneWeb network is fully launched and commercially
available.
Gogo will provide global
customer support through its network of 118
authorized dealers, including 24 that operate
outside the United States, serving Gogo’s
more-than-1000 non-U.S. narrowband satellite
customers that today operate in 83 countries around
the world.
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