Gogo has announced a new Major Capacity Agreement with satellite company Intelsat on the Intelsat Globalised Network, becoming the anchor tenant for the world’s first GEO/LEO Shared Network, Intelsat/OneWeb.
“Gogo’s open strategy gives us the ability to look to the entire satellite market for innovation, and Intelsat’s EpicNG satellites combined with OneWeb’s LEO constellation offers numerous advantages for aviation,” said Gogo’s president and CEO, Michael Small.
“Gogo continues to invest in open platforms that leverage the best connectivity technologies for aviation, because single technology, closed systems will not survive the test of time,” Michael Small, Gogo.
The Intelsat Epic(NG)/OneWeb network delivers pole-to-pole and gate-to-gate coverage of 10 Tbps, with multi-layered Ku-band capacity on the Intelsat EpicNG high throughput geosynchronous (GEO) satellites and OneWeb’s planned low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation.
“The Gogo 2Ku airborne terminal is designed to be compatible with multiple networks, including both the Intelsat EpicNG and OneWeb satellite constellations. This flexibility ensures a long-term technology solution that provides immediate benefits as well as a path to future network evolutions well into the next decade,” Gogo explains.
Through this new long-term agreement, Gogo promises “reliable, multi-layered” Ku-band capacity.
“OneWeb’s unique constellation will enable broadband connectivity in the polar-regions and at high latitudes will also have low latency because the satellites are much closer to earth,” said Anand Chari, Gogo’s chief technology officer. “Intelsat EpicNG and the Intelsat Globalised Network provide high performance services that will increase our service capability in this year and beyond. By using this shared network, Gogo’s 2Ku solution will be capable of delivering hundreds of Mbps per aircraft over every part of the globe.”
Gogo will expand its use of the Intelsat Globalised Network this year, purchasing additional capacity on Intelsat’s Ku-band infrastructure of 50 contiguous networked satellite which cover 99 percent of the world’s populated regions.
“Gogo’s Intelsat network infrastructure will initially include use of traditional wide beam services and the next generation high throughput satellite (HTS) Intelsat EpicNG platform, which is expected to enter service in 2016,” Gogo states.
The new network will deliver HTS high-speed Wi-Fi in North Atlantic, Europe, Middle East, Asia and the Pacific Ocean.
Gogo says customers should expect capacity of up to 250 Mbps per plane on the Intelsat EpicNG fleet.
“OneWeb’s Low Earth Orbit satellites are expected to be the first satellites to enable high performance services at high latitudes and on polar flights,” Gogo adds.
“Gogo’s leading in-flight broadband service represents exactly the type of application for which our Globalised Network and Intelsat EpicNG platform are targeted: global, high performance and with a business model that will flourish with the right economics,” said Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler.
“Our goal in creating the Intelsat/OneWeb shared network is to bring together the best solutions to support customer growth today while at the same time providing a future-proof path to an ever-improving global satellite infrastructure,” he added.
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