Gogo Business Aviation has finished construction of its nationwide US Gogo 5G network.

"Our team was tenacious and overcame a host of issues including Covid-19, weather, the supply chain and geopolitical concerns to build a new network of 150 towers nationwide, and they did it in less than 12 months," says president and COO Sergio Aguirre. "It's remarkable what our network deployment and field operations teams have accomplished."

The 5G network now covers the contiguous US and will expand into Canada beginning in 2023. The full 5G coverage map is available on Gogo's website.

Gogo 5G is expected to deliver ~25 Mbps on average, with peak speeds in the 75-80 Mbps range, and has been designed to deliver high throughput with very low latency to address the increasing demand for data-heavy interactive services like video conferencing, live TV and gaming.

Gogo's Avance platform, with its multi-bearer capability and software-centric design, allows customers to future-proof their inflight connectivity investments with easy upgrade paths to both Gogo 5G and Gogo's global Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite-based product in the future.

The first-article supplemental type certification (STC) for the 5G belly-mounted MB13 antennas and the X3 (5G) LRU has been completed. That STC will be amended once the 5G chip becomes available, which is expected to occur in mid-2023. Gogo is working closely with each of the business aviation original equipment manufacturers and several authorised Gogo dealers to develop additional STCs that will cover more than 30 aircraft models in the aftermarket or from the factory.

Customers who want Gogo 5G service can install the Avance L5 system with full 5G provisions (including the MB13 antennas) today, and operate on Gogo's 4G network until the X3 LRU is available. Once the X3 is ready, it can be installed quickly and 5G service can begin immediately, saving downtime and expenses.

Gogo is offering significant incentives to anyone who installs the 5G provisional kit with the Avance L5.