Having announced its new 4G airborne connectivity service for the business aviation market last month, Gogo Business Aviation revealed to AIN the company’s technology roadmap for the next five years. The 4G service, which will be available for business aviation in early 2017, brings Gogo Biz air-to-ground service from the existing 3G speed (up to 3.1 megabits per second or Mbps) to 4G (nearly 10 Mbps). But Gogo is looking far beyond that technology. The roadmap, said John Wade, executive v-p and general manager, “is a clear line of sight of how to get to 100 Mbps for air-to-ground and satcom.”

Gogo is now flying on more than 8,200 aircraft, with the Gogo Biz air-to-ground service (and airline 3G service) on more than 6,000 aircraft, and these systems generate more than 80,000 connections to the Internet per day.

The main driver of Gogo’s technology roadmap, Wade explained, is massive growth in mobile data usage. “We are halfway through a ten-fold increase in mobile data,” he said. “By 2019, there will be 1.5 mobile devices per person.” Between 2014 and 2019, mobile data traffic is expected to grow by 10 times, a compound annual growth rate of 57 percent. In addition to the growth in mobile devices, he said, “mobile video is becoming increasingly common. That is driving this massive adoption.

“What can we do to make sure we have solutions capable of supporting that data growth in the airplane?” he asked. “We’ve been working in the background on how to get positioned not just next year but for the next five years. And not just for the passengers, but for the airplane itself. We do one thing: our sole focus is getting your aircraft online. Whether it’s a small or big airplane, we will make sure you stay connected.”

Charter Customers Want Internet

It has become almost a tired cliche, but charter operators say that customers care far less about the airplane they are flying than whether it has “Wi-Fi,” which has become the ubiquitous term for broadband airborne connectivity. (Wi-Fi technically refers to a local wireless network that may or may not be connected to the Internet.) This is increasingly the case with business aircraft. “It’s become as important as pilots and propulsion,” Wade said.

During the next five years, not only will airborne connectivity speeds grow rapidly, but most of the world’s aircraft will be connected to the Internet and most of the messaging traffic will be generated by Internet-connected “things” rather than people communicating and watching videos.

Gogo’s air-to-ground system is not the only connectivity solution that the company offers, and it employs 10 different technologies, ranging from 3G and 4G air-to-ground (4G has been in service on airlines since 2012), Gogo Cloud and a variety of satcom networks. These include Iridium, Inmarsat (Classic, Swift 64, SwiftBroadband, Ku, 2Ku and Ka).

The company, which began as Aircell 24 years ago, launched its air-to-ground service in the U.S. in 2008, and that has expanded to parts of Canada and Alaska. The system works on a network of 245 ground stations with antennas pointed to the sky, and its 3G speed of up to 3.1 Mbps was the first reliable broadband connectivity available for business aviation. However, the 3G service doesn’t allow emails with large attachments or video streaming.

Gogo Biz 4G airborne will be available for the business aviation market in early 2017, and this will be more than three times faster than the 3G service. In addition to streaming video, Gogo Biz 4G will allow streaming audio, email with attachments, web browsing, voice calling and VPN support. Owners of existing Gogo Biz systems who want to install the 4G equipment will be offered “loyalty programs with significant trade-in incentives,” according to Gogo, as the existing transceivers will not be upgradeable to 4G. The 4G system includes dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi “and a host of other features” in a single box, instead of the current two-box system.

After launch of 4G service for the business aviation market, Gogo plans to continue selling 3G Gogo Biz systems to give buyers more options. “We’re not anticipating a significant change in terms of service plans [when 4G becomes available to the business aviation market],” Wade said.

In the air-to-ground market, Gogo is targeting its next-generation system for 2018/2019. The company is planning to participate in an upcoming spectrum auction in the 14 GHz band and hopes to secure two 250 MHz and/or four 125 MHz licenses. With these licenses in hand, Gogo plans to offer air-to-ground speeds of more than 100 Mbps, Wade said. “We believe inside two or three years of the auction being complete, we will see a next-gen broadband [air-to-ground] system in North America.”

Satcom Developments

On the satcom side, Gogo will continue offering its SwiftBroadband systems, and plans call for adding SwiftBroadband safety services shortly. Gogo is also a service provider for the new Inmarsat Ka-band Jet Connex service. This will offer speeds of up to 15 Mbps and near global coverage, according to Wade, and service is expected to begin later this year. Honeywell is the hardware provider for Jet Connex.

While some may think that Ka-band will supersede the existing Inmarsat Ku network, that is not the case. Gogo has more than 200 Ku systems flying in airline aircraft and with new antenna technology sees a market in business aviation as well. The advantage here is speeds of up to 30 Mbps, also on a near-global basis. The key to the higher speed of Gogo’s Ku and 2Ku service is a large tail-mount antenna. The 2Ku antenna contains two three-foot discs, and this is not suitable for business jets. Wade said that new fuselage-mounted antennas could allow high-speed Ku service of up to 50 Mbps for business jets. Airlines that can fit the large 2Ku antenna will see speeds of up to 100 Mbps.

Gogo is constantly evaluating technologies suitable for airborne connectivity, and uses “six points of success” as a measuring tool. These include technology, funding, business plan, infrastructure, experience and commitment to aviation. Wade pointed out that there are 10 different connectivity networks competing for aviation customers (including existing systems and proposed systems from companies such as OneWeb, SpaceX, SmartSky and others). The company isn’t trying to deprecate its competitors, but is trying to educate the market about how these systems work and how to “separate the wheat from the chaff.”

“We’re making people aware of what’s coming,” Wade said. “There’s a lot of conversation about different networks. Some will be relevant to aviation, some will disappear.

“We’ve spent about a billion dollars building and deploying networks,” Wade said, adding that Gogo has set aside another half billion dollars for next-generation systems. “We pride ourselves on being able to innovate. If you aren’t looking at what you need to do to reinvent yourself, somebody is going to reinvent you for you.”