Thursday, September 12, 2013

Gogo Ramps In-Flight Wi-Fi Speeds To 60 Mbps

Gogo, the provider of in-flight Wi-Fi which has major operations in Broomfield, Colorado, has unveiled plans for its next-generation, in-=flight wireless, saying it will bolster speeds up to 60 Mbps, over six times its current speed. Gogo said its next generation ground-to-air service is expected to become available in the second half of 2014. Gogo recently upgraded its service to support 9.8 Mbps, already a big upgrade from the company's initial, 3.1 Mbps transmission speeds. Gogo said that it will be launching the new, higher speed service with launch partner Virgin America. Gogo is moving it service to a new, Ku-band antenna for high speed satellite reception, and using its air-to-ground network for sending data. Gogo and other in-flight Wi-Fi companies have rapidly been switching to KU band satellites due to their high speed capability and low profile antennas, which are important to reduce fuel burn on aircraft.