November 18, 2016 – Satellite operator Intelsat has announced that connectivity giant Gogo has signed an agreement for services on the Intelsat 29e satellite.
Gogo will use high-throughput services from the first satellite in the global Intelsat EpicNG network to deliver inflight wi-fi services to passenger aircraft operating on North Atlantic routes. The connectivity provided by Intelsat 29e, which began operations earlier this year, will deliver bridge services for Gogo until Intelsat 32e becomes operational in 2017. Intelsat is also providing Gogo with IntelsatOne managed services via its Mountainside, Maryland teleport.
In March 2016, Gogo signed an agreement for Intelsat to deliver next-generation in-flight connectivity services via multi-layered Ku-band services on the Intelsat EpicNG satellites combined with OneWeb’s planned low earth orbit satellite constellation. Coverage will include high-performance connectivity provided by Intelsat 32e, Intelsat 33e and Horizons 3e.
“The performance of the Intelsat EpicNG satellites demonstrates the value of high-throughput satellite technology,” said Michael Small, Gogo’s president and CEO. “When factoring in the ease of integration to Intelsat EpicNG services, we opted to begin services with Intelsat 29e immediately and transition to Intelsat 32e when it becomes operational. We look forward to expanding our reach as more Intelsat EpicNG satellites become available.”
Intelsat 33e will expand Gogo’s services across Europe, the Middle East and Asia when it begins service in the first quarter of 2017 at 60 East, and the Horizons 3e spacecraft will create a global HTS service for Gogo when it begins operations over the Asia-Pacific region in 2018.
“Intelsat is delivering on the promise of HTS with Intelsat EpicNG, with a unique design that provides immediate improvement in performance of up to 165%,” said Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler.
