2Ku Satellite Nearer to Launch With FCC Approval
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Gogo announced today that their next-gen 2Ku satellite technology has received blanket regulatory approval from the FCC to operate on 1,000 aircraft. This is an important step in delivering the 2Ku satellite to the commercial aviation market, which is expected to occur in the later half of 2015 with launch clients such as Air Canada, JAL and United slated to trial the new product. Gogo has also confirmed commitments from Aeromexico and Virgin Atlantic.
The 2Ku dual antenna technology was first revealed at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in 2014, and is expected to deliver an impressive bandwidth capacity of up to 70Mbps at peak speeds, and totaling just 6.7 inches high to reduce aircraft drag as well as lowering the frequency of bird strikes. The compact dual antenna concept enables one antenna to be devoted to the downlink and the other on the uplink, while the antennae themselves are spectrally efficient and compatible with both existing and future Ku satellites. When future spot beam satellite technologies become available, the 2Ku unit may deliver speeds beyond 100 Mbps.
Gogo’s current air-to-ground (ATG) network delivers average speeds of 3.1 Mbps, while their ATG-4 service upped the game to 9.8 Mbps. Their Ground-to-Orbit (GTO) technology harnesses their ATG network for the uplink to the plane and Ku-band satellites for downlink, delivering up to 60 Mbps.
For more on satellite technology, read the “Advanced Antennae” story by Howard Slutsken in APEX Experience Magazine’s Architecture Issue.