Gogo 5G chipset passes “critical design review”
January 26, 2023
By Chris Forrester
In-flight connectivity specialists Gogo Business Aviation says its latest 5G chip-set has passed its critical design review and has now gone into production.
The new chipsets will be available mid-year 2023.
“The critical design review was an important process and milestone before entering into the manufacturing cycle,” said Mike Syverson, Gogo’s SVP/engineering. “Given the challenges that our supplier experienced in 2022, we felt that passing this amount of review would give us the confidence necessary to deliver 5G in 2023.”
Gogo Business Aviation’s 5G service is expected to launch commercially in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Gogo 5G is expected to provide ~25 Mbps on average, with peak speeds in the 75-80 Mbps range to its aircraft. It has been designed to deliver high throughput with very low latency to address the increasing demand for data-heavy interactive services like video conferencing, live TV and gaming.
Gogo’s AVANCE in-flight platform, with its multi-bearer capability and software-centric design, allows customers to future-proof their inflight connectivity investments, with easy upgrade paths to both Gogo 5G and Gogo’s global Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite-based product in the future. The first-article Supplemental Type Certification (STC) for the 5G belly-mounted MB13 antennas and the X3 (5G) LRU have been completed. That STC will be amended once the 5G chip becomes available, says Gogo.
Gogo says it is working closely with each of the business aviation original equipment manufacturers and several authorized Gogo dealers to develop additional STCs that will cover more than 30 aircraft models in the aftermarket or from the factory.
Customers who want Gogo 5G service can install the AVANCE L5 system today with full 5G provisions and operate on Gogo’s 4G network until the X3 LRU is available. Once the X3 is ready, it can be installed quickly and 5G service can begin immediately, saving downtime and expenses.