Last August Gogo announced a delay in its Gogo 5G network activation, owing to issues in development of the chipset for its on-board modem. Today the company confirms that those issues are resolved. Gogo indicated that the hardware has passed a critical design review stage and moved into fabrication. Delivery is expected mid-year.
The critical design review was an important process and milestone before entering into the manufacturing cycle. Given the challenges that our supplier experienced in 2022, we felt that passing this amount of review would give us the confidence necessary to deliver 5G in 2023.
– Mike Syverson, Gogo’s senior vice president of engineering
With production of the modem chips now underway the company expects to bring its updated services online for customers in Q4 2023.
Gogo also confirms that the first-article Supplemental Type Certification (STC) for the 5G belly-mounted MB13 antennas and the X3 (5G) LRU have been completed. That STC will be amended once the 5G chip becomes available.
Additional STCs are being developed in partnership with each of the business aviation original equipment manufacturers and several authorized Gogo dealers. The company anticipates eventually supporting installation on more than 30 aircraft models, either in the aftermarket or direct from the factory.
Gogo also continues to push sales of its existing AVANCE L5 platform, along with the new antenna hardware. That system will operate on Gogo’s legacy 4G network today and can be upgraded to the 5G platform once the X3 LRU certification is completed.
The company must also continue to navigate the pending lawsuit filed by SmartSky regrading claimed patent violations. While Gogo avoided a preliminary injunction in that case, the suit continues to work its way through the federal court system. This includes SmartSky’s appeal of the injunction ruling, as well as hearings on the underlying case. The parties expect that a ruling could be realized prior to Gogo 5G formally coming on the market in Q4, though that is not guaranteed.
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