From oldest to newest, below are the technologies that Gogo currently uses, has developed, or announced:
Gogo's air-to-ground (ATG) network is a cellular radio network (meaning that there is a hand-off when the aircraft moves between service areas) that has more than 200 towers in the continental U.S. and Canada. The ground stations consist of original Airfone air-ground phone relay stations and newer locations, using the 850 MHz ATG band. Unlike terrestrial cell sites, ATG ground stations project a directional signal up into the air where airplanes are, rather than downward, where terrestrial users are. However, the short wavelength used allows segmentation and other cellular technologies in the same way that terrestrial cellphone technology works. The aircraft communicates with the ground stations through an antenna installed on the underbelly of the fuselage. Equipment in the aircraft's avionics bay converts between proprietary Gogo protocols and standard Wi-Fi, which is distributed into the passenger cabin through multiple interior wireless access point nodes.
Gogo provides continuous coverage with minimal interruptions in speed, detected when passing from one cell tower signal to the next. Gogo's connection speed is approximately 500–600 kilobits per second for individual users for downloads and 300 kbit/s for uploads. Total bandwidth for all users on the flight is approximately 3 Mbit/s. Some users reported Speedtest.net benchmarks above 3 Mbit/s, while other users reported low results of 0.03 Mbit/s down and 0.27 up. In January 2015, David P. Reed reported that Gogo service exhibited multiple seconds of latency under load, due to bufferbloat.
Gogo's ATG-4 system is a backwards compatible improvement to the previous ATG system. Maximum total download bandwidth has increased from 3.1 Mbit/s to 9.8 Mbit/s. ATG-4 has been installed on at least 600 aircraft as of 2015. Gogo can upgrade planes from ATG to ATG-4 overnight.
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ATG-4 is powered by EV-DO Rev B, one of the only production applications of the B-revision to EV-DO as part of the CDMA2000 standard.
Ku-band satellite
Gogo has satellite agreements in place with SES (for coverage over the U.S., Atlantic Ocean, and Europe) and Intelsat (for coverage over portions of the Atlantic and northern Pacific oceans, as well as routes over South America, Asia, Africa, and Australia). Gogo has also signed an agreement with Intelsat for Ku band satellite capacity, specifically for coverage in the Atlantic and northern Pacific oceans, as well as routes over Central and South America, Asia, Australia, and parts of Africa. Gogo announced in May 2012 that it would partner with satellite equipment provider, AeroSat, to bring a Ku-satellite communications to commercial airlines, allowing Gogo to offer airlines connectivity services that extend beyond the United States, including transoceanic routes, and will serve the needs of some of their airline partners in the near-term until Inmarsat's Global Xpress Ka band-satellite becomes available. Gogo's Ku-band satellite technology is used for Gogo's Ground to Orbit and 2Ku.
Gogo Ground to Orbit
Gogo Ground to Orbit uses a Ku-band satellite antenna for the downlink to the plane and Gogo's Air to Ground for uplink from the plane. Ground to Orbit is in service over the United States, providing peak download speeds of 60 Mbit/s. Virgin America was the launch partner of this service. The Ku-band satellite antennas used for GTO are manufactured by ThinKom Solutions.
2Ku
2Ku, Gogo's newest technology, uses two Ku-band antennas, one for download and the other for upload. Gogo claims that 2Ku will have peak speeds of 70 Mbit/s and has a low-profile 17 cm (6.69 in) tall radome. Like Ground to Orbit, the Ku-band antennas are manufactured by ThinKom Solutions. Aeroméxico was the first airline to commit to using 2Ku.
Gogo was determined to expand markets for its 2Ku service. On November 13, 2015, the company demonstrated 2Ku for two dozen aviation and technology reporters aboard a Boeing 737. The system was able to stream high-definition videos. It was a small horde of “data-hungry journalists on board all trying to kill the system,” said Jason Rabinowitz, manager of data research for Routehappy. Gogo claimed that the service can provide speeds up to 70 megabits per second, with 100 Mbit/s to be available when satellite-beaming techniques are perfected.
Actual speed is less impressive, as discussed in a TechTimes summary of some journalists' findings during the November 13, 2015 trials. "Speedtest rated it at 11.71 Mbit/s downloads, a 656-millisecond ping and uploads of 0.53 Mbit/s on my first try," said Timothy J. Seppala from Engadget. He added that one drawback is the ping time, which varies between 500 and 1000 milliseconds. The Verge's Chris Welch, meanwhile, observed that upload speeds were almost nonexistent, but stressed that casual Internet users seldom need to upload anything larger than a picture or a Vine video anyway. As for streaming, it works brilliantly when [used by] only 18 people." Total bandwidth on the media flight was capped at 25 Mbit/s.
A Gogo press release in September 2015 stated that a Japan Airlines member, JTA, was then the most recent company to order 2Ku connectivity for its 737-800 aircraft. More recently, in a November 12, 2015 press release the company indicates that "8 airlines representing more than 550 aircraft have adopted the [2ku] technology for fleet deployment or a trial of the service." More specifically, in addition to Aeroméxico which already has 2Ku-equipped jets in the air, Virgin Airlines and Delta Air Lines confirmed orders for 2ku service, Gogo CEO Michael Small told Bloomberg Business. More than 1,200 aircraft committed to receiving 2Ku. In February 2019, Alaska Airlines announced a rollout of the 2Ku service to their fleet, with a goal of half of their main fleet activated on the service by 2020. They claim 2Ku will allow passengers to stream online content.
Products
Gogo platform
Gogo's in-air platform gives travelers information, services, and entertainment while the airlines are able to display airline-specific information.
Gogo Text and Talk
Gogo Text enables passengers can send and receive text messages from their mobile phones. Gogo Talk lets passengers make and receive voice calls. In September 2014, T-Mobile US announced a new agreement with Gogo to provide customers with free unlimited WiFi text and multimedia messaging while on board a Gogo WiFi-equipped flight from a U.S.-based airline.
Gogo Vision
Gogo Vision streams movies and TV shows from an onboard server. In July 2014, Gogo launched Delta Studio with Delta Air Lines offering passengers a variety of television shows and movies that will be streamed wirelessly to passengers' own Wi-Fi enabled devices.
Gogo TV
Gogo TV will enable airlines to deliver live television content to passengers own Wi-Fi enabled device. Channel options will be customized by the airline so it will allow passengers to watch popular networks in their country or region. The service currently will only be available to airlines that select Gogo's 2Ku technology. The first airline to commit to Gogo TV is Gol.
