The company said it aims to deliver Gogo 5G in approximately mid-year 2024
Gogo Business Aviation recently announced another delay in the launch of its Gogo 5G system, due to a design error in a non-5G component of its chip, which it says was designed by a third-party subcontractor of its 5G solution provider.
“We are disappointed in this delay, but remain confident that Gogo 5G will deliver better performance and better value than competitive [air-to-ground] or [geostationary] satellite solutions,” said Sergio Aguirre, Gogo’s president and chief operating officer.
Gogo said it is is collaborating with its suppliers on more definitive plans, but expects to deliver Gogo 5G in approximately mid-year 2024.
Gogo’s plans for faster speeds for its in-flight connectivity service have been plagued by multiple delays. The company (which sold its commercial IFC business to Intelsat in order to focus on the business aviation segment) had originally planned for a launch in 2021, but ran into supply chain issues that pushed the launch to 2022. In mid-2022, the company announced another year-long delay due to chip testing issues. Now it has been pushed into 2024.
Its named strategic partners for the service include Airspan Networks, Cisco and First RF. Gogo is also working with OneWeb and Hughes on a LEO satellite constellation to support the service.
Gogo emphasized that its suppliers “have so far successfully conducted extensive testing of the 5G components of the chip, and the design error is not in the 5G block of the chip.”
The company also said it has already achieved significant milestones in the launch of Gogo 5G, including the launch of the Gogo 5G antenna and the 150-site ground-based network in the United States and Canada. Gogo said it continues to take 5G orders and is making headway with major OEMs to make 5G a line-fit option.
The firm also highlighted that customers can pre-provision today with 5G antennas and harnesses, which will allow operators to quickly install the 5G box once the chip is available.
Gogo’s 5G offering is expected to provide nearly 25 Mbps on average, with peak speeds in the 75-80 Mbps range. The solution has been designed with the goal of delivering high throughput with very low latency, addressing the increased demand in data-heavy services and applications such as video conferencing, cloud computing and social media, as well as emerging technologies in the future, the company said.
Despite the delay, Gogo said it remains confident in its ability to bring to market what it claims to be the first 5G network exclusively for business aviation.
Gogo also stated that it expects the project to remain on budget, adding that the delay is anticipated to reduce 2023 revenue by approximately $7 million and defer approximately $13 million in operating and capital expense from 2023 into 2024.
In April, the company announced plans to expand its Gogo 5G network into Canada, with the aim of providing additional coverage to business aviation operators in North America.
The firm said that its Gogo 5G offering leverages the company’s AVANCE platform system with its multi-bearer capability, allowing customers to realize their inflight connectivity investments now, while establishing the possibility to upgrade to Gogo 5G and Gogo’s global Low Earth Orbit (LEO) solution in the future.
