Gogo builds 7-tower 5G testbed for its Air-to-Ground network

Gogo Business Aviation has completed a seven-tower 5G testbed as part of the deployment of its nationwide 5G Air-to-Ground (ATG) network.

Gogo’s 5G ATG network is powered by Airspan’s OpenRANGE Air5G Sub-6 GHZ Radio Unit (RU) macros, fully virtualized OpenRANGE vCU (Centralized Unit) and vDU (Distributed Unit) software, and massive MIMO antennas. 

Gogo said it is on track to launch its 5G ATG network in the second half of the year, leveraging Airspan’s portfolio of 5G advanced 5G infrastructure, Open RAN virtualized software and hardware, and 5G antennas. Gogo 5G is expected to deliver ~25 Mbps on average with peak speeds in the 75-80 Mbps range and has been designed to deliver high throughput with very low latency to address the increasing demand for data-heavy interactive services like video conferencing.

“These seven sites will serve as a testbed for our 150-tower nationwide network,” said Mike Rupert, vice president of network operations for Gogo Business Aviation. “The testbed includes sites in both remote and populated locations to validate the network is operating as designed in all – and many – challenging environments.”

Airspan says its antenna solutions are ruggedized and proven for harsh environments, and provide a series of critical features including advanced beam shaping, high-precision beam pointing, specifically designed beam profiles for long range air-to-ground applications, critical interference suppression, and support of Doppler Effect exceeding 3GPP (industry standard) speeds by four times -- in excess of 1200 km/hour/750 MPH.

“These milestones and the innovation behind them are great examples of Airspan’s ability to provide unique solutions and continued leadership in 5G and Open RAN software, hardware and air interfaces in challenging deployments,” said Airspan President and CEO Eric Stonestrom. “We are working closely with Gogo to bring 5G innovation and technology to aviation. This network deployment is a model for future 5G Air-to-Ground networks, and is applicable to multiple markets on a global scale.”

• As of Sept. 30, 2021, Gogo reported 2,237 business aircraft flying with Gogo’s AVANCE L5 or L3 system installed, 6,154 aircraft flying with its ATG systems onboard, and 4,542 aircraft with narrowband satellite connectivity installed