talk Satellite

Gogo announced that it will upgrade its satellite modem for use with its next generation 2Ku and Ku satellite technologies. The new modem will begin flight testing on Gogo's Boeing 737 test lab – the Jimmy Ray – in the coming months, with commercial delivery expected to begin in 2017.

The proprietary features of the new modem will significantly increase throughput from the satellite to end users on the aircraft. The modem will be capable of delivering 400 Mbps to an aircraft, which will be more than enough to support the anticipated capacity of next generation high-throughput satellites. The modem will also have the capability to simultaneously supporting IP streaming and IPTV.

"Just like your home or office Wi-Fi set-up, you can make improvements to the amount of bandwidth delivered, but if the modem can't support that bandwidth, you can create a choke point in the network," said Anand Chari, Gogo's chief technology officer. "Gogo's next generation modem is being built with a lot of room to spare so it will be ready to handle data delivered from next generation high throughput satellites and beyond."

Gogo has partnered with Gilat Satellite Networks for the development of the new modem. Gogo and Gilat together are developing advanced mobility management features that will be incorporated into the new modem. Gogo has been lab testing the new modem, which has already delivered 200 Mbps using Gogo's 2Ku antenna.

"This incredibly fast modem is an example of how we are building our network on an open architecture so that our customer can seamlessly migrate to the fastest and cheapest new satellite technologies as they come online," said Chari. "Our 2KU antenna is twice as spectrally efficient as any other antenna, and this modem will allow us to deliver that speed advantage to our customers. It also will allow our customers to seamlessly upgrade to the new Ku High Throughput Satellites (HTS) that have just started to be launched, and the massive-scale low earth orbit (LEO) constellations planned over the next decade."