A chip design snag that has delayed the launch of Gogo Business Aviation’s 5G air-to-ground (ATG) inflight connectivity service since 2021 is in the process of being resolved, and the firm now expects to begin shipping 5G in the second quarter of 2025.
“That chip is going back into pattern and mass generation now and we have recalibrated all of our milestones, and plan [on] shipping 5G in the second quarter 2025. We are continuing to work very closely with our vendor partners to smooth the path towards fabrication and launch,” company chairman and CEO Oakleigh Thorne said today during an earnings conference call to report a second quarter net income of $0.8 million on revenue of $102.1 million, the latter down 1% year-over-year.
Gogo did see record service revenue of $81.9 million for the three-month period ended 30 June, a 4% increase over the year-earlier period. “On the negative side, Gogo experienced customer churn to competitors during the quarter and a quarterly decrease in aircraft online,” investment firm William Blair noted in its report today.
Pressed by an analyst for a firmer timeline for 5G shipments, Thorne said “mid-2Q” and elsewhere on the call “May” 2025. He noted that Gogo has retired or is in the process of retiring a lot of program risk including by using field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, which tests many aspects of the chip before Gogo has the natural 5G chip itself.
In terms of milestones, Gogo expects chip fabrication to begin in September 2024. After the chip emerges from fabrication, it will enter ‘bring-up’ testing, then arrive at Gogo for installation and flight testing. Then PMA (parts manufacturer approval) will be sought and supplemental type certifications (STCs) secured. On the ground, the 5G network is already nationwide in the US and extends into parts of Canada.
Aircraft operators can pre-provision for 5G today. Indeed, Gogo has already shipped 292 5G pre-provision kits with MB13 antennas, and some 105 of these are already installed and using Gogo’s current 4G service.
When available, the Gogo 5G service is expected to achieve mean Internet speeds of around 25 Mbps and peak speeds of 75-80 Mbps, said Thorne.
Gogo is the dominant provider of IFC in the US business aviation market. However, it faces competition from nextgen ATG newcomer SmartSky Networks, and on larger jets, SpaceX’s Starlink Ku-band Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite solution plus a bevy of tail-mount IFC offerings including from Collins Aerospace, Satcom Direct (SD) and Viasat.
Gogo is also getting into the satcom game for BizAv to extend its reach beyond North America, and provide global service. Unlike Gogo 5G, its Galileo-branded LEO program is on track.
Powered by Eutelsat OneWeb’s Ku-band service, and using electronically steered antennas from Hughes Network Systems, Galileo will take on Starlink and indeed other satcom solutions. (SD is also expected to launch its own Eutelsat OneWeb-powered service.)
Gogo in July started installing the Galileo kit on its Challenger 300 testbed, with flight testing expected this month. PMA is anticipated in the fourth quarter. “We remain on track to start shipping HDX (half-duplex) terminals in Q4 and FDX (full-duplex) terminals in the first half of 2025,” said Thorne.
The company has also revealed its equipment and service pricing — service starts at $3,500 — with what Thorne refers to as “a modest premium to our competitor” justified by Gogo’s “superior” aviation-grade equipment, network and reliability, and customer support.
Reza Rasoulian, senior vice president of Hughes’ Aviation Business Unit, recently told RGN that the firm’s ESA hardware will beat competing LEO-based ESAs on the market both in terms of power and heat consumption.
Gogo has already signed eight STC agreements covering 11 popular aircraft models for Galileo, said Thorne, with another 21 verbally committed covering another 17 unique aircraft models.
“We’ve already signed one OEM for linefit on four models of aircraft and they’ve already set cut-in dates for three of those models next year and those aircraft account for more than 100 deliveries a year. And we are actively engaged with several other OEMs on linefit deals,” added the Gogo CEO.
For Gogo, “Galileo is critical to preserving the competitive positioning and capturing a portion of the untapped 12,000 business jets registered outside the US that do not have broadband connectivity,” according to William Blair.
Related Articles:
- LEO satcom and nextgen ATG bolster IFC options in business aviation
- OneWeb-powered Galileo to be competitively priced to Starlink: Gogo
- SpaceX lowers monthly pricing for Starlink Aviation in BizAv
- How Hughes is differentiating with its LEO aero ESA
- Gogo eyes 3Q 2024 for 5G shipments as chip problem bites
- Opportunity arises as Gogo plans 2026 phase out of Classic ATG support
- Hughes on target to flight-test ESA for Gogo Business in 2H 2024
- Chip testing issue delays Gogo 5G inflight connectivity plan
Featured image credited to istock.com/Robert Buchel
