Aviation broadband connectivity provider, Gogo has announced plans to build a 5G network, which could be available for business and commercial aviation in 2021. The company has stated that this ATG (air-to-ground) network will be designed for use on business aviation aircraft, commercial regional jets and smaller mainline jets operating within the USA and Canada. When compared to satellite technologies, ground-based network technologies can deliver operational advantages such as lower costs of operation and lower latency. Gogo is committed to provide .
“We expect to launch Gogo 5G at the same time as the terrestrial telecommunications companies are deploying the same generation of technology on the ground – a first in the inflight connectivity industry,” said Oakleigh Thorne, CEO of Gogo. “Gogo 5G is the next step in our technology evolution and is expected to deliver an unparalleled user experience, pairing high performance with low latency and network-wide redundancy.”
Gogo will build the 5G network on its existing infrastructure of more than 250 towers and will use unlicensed spectrum in the 2.4GHz range, along with a proprietary modem and advanced beamforming technology. According to Gogo, its 5G infrastructure will support all spectrum types (licensed, shared, unlicensed) and bands (mid, high, low), and will allow Gogo to take advantage of new advances in technology as they are developed, with easy upgrade paths to 5G available to existing Gogo ATG customers. Similar to how wireless carriers provide redundancy across their networks, Gogo will continue to employ its 3G and 4G networks throughout the continental USA and in Canada that will provide backup to the 5G network when needed.
