Airspan Networks, which provides ground-breaking, disruptive software and hardware for 5G network solutions, recently announced that it is helping Gogo deliver 5G technology to business aircraft.
Gogo Business Aviation (Gogo), the world’s largest provider of broadband connectivity services for the business aviation market, has achieved several key milestones on the way to deploying a nationwide 5G air-to-ground (ATG) network, developing a portfolio of 5G antennas, software and other equipment in conjunction with Airspan.
Gogo 5G utilizes Airspan’s massive MIMO antennas, which are tightly integrated for use with Airspan’s OpenRANGE Air5G Sub-6 GHz Radio Unit (RU) Macros and fully virtualized 5G OpenRANGE vCU and vDU software. The unique antenna solutions are ruggedized and proven for harsh environments, and provide a series of critical features.
Gogo’s latest achievements and developments for its 5G ATG network include:
Installation of the first two 5G antennas from Airspan on a tower. With the antennas now installed, Gogo will conduct prototype testing of system performance.
Completion of coast-to-coast flight testing by Gogo of its 5G belly-mounted antennas to validate their performance.Interoperability testing using Gogo SIM cards connected to the Gogo 5G core network.
Eric Stonestrom, President and CEO, Airspan
We are working closely with Gogo to help them bring 5G technology to aviation. With aircraft traveling at over 500 MPH and at 35,000-40,000 feet, there are numerous challenges to provide reliable connectivity. We believe Airspan engineers are the best in the industry, which is why Gogo has chosen Airspan as one of its key 5G partners.
Mike Syverson, SVP of Engineering for Gogo
The tests we’ve conducted and successfully passed validate what we modeled when we initially announced we would build a 5G network. There is a lot of software development to put those pieces together, and it’s all working very well, as we continue to work closely with Airspan and our other technology partners to test and buildout our nationwide ATG network.
