Bandwidth demand from business aviation customers is stronger than ever. In-flight wi-fi providers offering a variety of solutions are competing fiercely with one another to come out on top.
While Inmarsat and ViaSat continue to slug it out for market share in the satellite-based connectivity space, US-based Gogo Business Aviation recently launched its new and improved 4G air-to-ground service, Avance L5, for which it says sales are progressing well.
Meanwhile, newcomer SmartSky Networks continues to develop its own 4G air-to-ground network for North America, SmartSky 4G LTE, although service launch has been pushed back from later this year until the middle of 2018.
Gogo describes its Avance L5 system – formerly known as Gogo Biz 4G – as the beginning of "a new era in business aviation". The company in August received supplemental type certification (STC) and parts manufacturer approval (PMA) from the US Federal Aviation Administration for the dual-directional antennas that support the new service. It is now working to secure STCs to install Avance L5 on more than 40 business aircraft types.
Avance L5 recently entered service with an undisclosed launch customer on an Embraer Legacy 600, and there are currently two customers flying the system. Gogo's existing 3G air-to-ground system is in service on 4,500 business aircraft and Sergio Aguirre, senior vice-president and general manager at Gogo Business Aviation, says 1,000 of those customers have expressed an interest in upgrading to Avance L5.
Gogo has used this Challenger 600 to test its Avance L5 service
Gogo
One of the launch customers is “brand new”, while the other upgraded from the 3G product.
The newer system has three times the capacity of its predecessor, says Aguirre. This, according to the company, will provide business aviation users with “a more robust experience for activities such as live streaming video and audio, on-demand movies, personal smartphone use, real-time data for cockpit apps, and remote diagnostics and support while in flight”.
Aguirre says 50 business aviation operators have signed up for Avance L5 so far, and most are brand-new customers. “I expected most to be upgrades, so this is a very surprising number to me,” he notes.
"What we’re doing with Avance L5 is providing a much-enhanced service that is much closer to what you’d see on the ground with a 4G system," says Aguirre. "Before, connectivity was associated with work and people would say [business jet flight time] would be the only time the owner gets to disconnect and have downtime. But now connectivity is downtime… so the demand is much greater."
Drawback
The downside of air-to-ground systems is that they do not work once the aircraft is out of the cellular towers’ range. Therefore, a business let flying from North America to Europe would lose connectivity over the Atlantic unless it was fitted with antennas to access a satellite-based system. Aguirre does not believe satellite systems will replace air-to-ground networks, though.
"In the past, customers who fly internationally that have installed Ku- or Ka-band systems have chosen to install Gogo's air-to-ground system in conjunction," he says, adding that there are two reasons why satellites have not displaced air-to-ground.
"Our operating cost for air-to-ground as opposed to satellite-based is so much less that it pays for itself. But the main reason is the experience: satellite systems have latency," says Aguirre. "There is definitely a place for satellite technology – when done correctly it's an enhancement and a complement to air-to-ground."
While Avance L5 is an upgrade to Gogo's 3G offering, the new system itself has been designed to be upgraded to the company's NextGen network, which is scheduled to launch next year. By adding a small radio and antenna, L5 customers will be able to upgrade to the faster NextGen network in early 2019.
"All the wiring in the cabin remains the same. Basically, you’re just adding another, faster pipe to the aircraft," says Aguirre, adding that lab tests have demonstrated speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) on the NextGen service, a more than tenfold increase over speeds on Gogo Avance L5.
"Gogo will be the only network in business or commercial aviation that uses dual networks for redundancy and performance," says Aguirre. The equipment on the aircraft will continuously seek out the best network in a way that is "seamless to the passenger", he adds.
Gogo will soon face competition from start-up connectivity provider SmartSky Networks, which is in the process of developing a 4G air-to-ground network across the USA called SmartSky 4G LTE.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company had hoped the service would be operational in the latter part of this year but now says its "estimate for completing coverage to support the network's nationwide service launch has been updated to mid-2018, reflecting additional time being required for STC-related software optimisation and production of base station radios".
When it does launch, SmartSky claims its network will provide "more than 10 times the typical speed and capacity of the current industry standard ATG network, and at a lower cost per bit". SmartSky is pursuing its first STC on a business aircraft and says that STCs and PMAs will follow on "over 40 popular business aircraft models".
Despite the claims made by both companies on the speed and reliability of air-to-ground networks, Gogo is considering how to bring its 2Ku satellite-based in-flight connectivity system for commercial airlines to the business aviation market. This would enable it to target larger business aircraft and the international market.
"Gogo has built a tremendous, global Ku network and it's doing so well in commercial aviation that we’re looking for a way to bring that capability to business aviation customers," says Aguirre. Gogo announced on 19 September that it would make a Ku-band satellite broadband service available to business aviation operators in the second half of 2018. The system will include a tail-mounted antenna and hardware that is compatible with the Gogo Avance air-to-ground platform.
But it will face stiff competition from incumbent providers of satellite-based connectivity to this market, namely Inmarsat and ViaSat. The former has already launched its Jet ConneX Ka-band in-flight broadband service, while the latter supports hundreds of business jets with its Ku-band service and is on the verge of launching its own Ka-band in-flight internet system, which is being rebranded but was formerly known as Exede.
ViaSat is going in to this year's NBAA event with the confident slogan that it offers a "bigger, better, bolder” in-flight wi-fi experience than anyone else, says James Person, director business development and strategy for ViaSat's business aviation division.
ViaSat celebrated two milestones this year: the launch of its second Ka-band satellite – ViaSat-2 – which covers North Atlantic flight routes as far down as the Caribbean and up into Canada, or 80% of business aviation flight hours, as ViaSat describes it; and a new Ka-band shipset which Person says has "already been transmitting on our network" and is now being demonstrated to aircraft original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
"We’ve seen up to 50 Mbps through that antenna, so we intend to surprise and delight customers when they see the speed," says Person. ViaSat’s existing Ku-band business aviation customers will be able to upgrade to the Ka-band service when it launches in the second half of 2018, although many are expected to continue to use the Ku-band network alongside the newer service.
More than 50 business aviation operators have already signed for Avance L5 installations
Gogo
"For our current Ku customers adding Ka, they will still have global coverage [through the Ku network] but when they're in the 80% coverage area they will have the fastest available service," says Person. "Over half have expressed interest to not replace Ku with Ka but to keep it, so they will have Ka when they're in the growing Ka region but they will have Ku as a back-up." Customers will continue to pay "the same price point they're paying today", adds Person.
Capacity boost
He says with ViaSat-2 the company offers "20 times more capacity than other Ka-band networks", and when the ViaSat-3 constellation launches, this will increase to 100 times the capacity.
In addition to greater capacity, ViaSat points to the smaller size and lighter weight of its antennas compared with competing models. Both the Ku-band and Ka-band antennas are small enough to be installed together in the tail of the aircraft on larger business jets, meaning they do not need to take up space in the baggage compartment.
On smaller models, such as the Dassault Falcon 900, where there is only room for one antenna in the tail, Person says the Ku and Ka shipsets are "the same footprint", which makes the upgrade "effortless".
'[Customers] will only need a new Ka-band radome, that’s all," he adds.
ViaSat has "a number of launch customers" for the Ka-band service, says Person, and STCs "will be available on all large-cabin business jets and some midsize ones".
"It all comes together in the second half of 2018," he adds.
Rival Inmarsat is also entering NBAA in confident mode, having already launched its Jet ConneX service for business aviation operators and made solid progress on completing installations.
"The biggest problem has been our success," says Inmarsat vice-president business aviation Kurt Weidemeyer. "This is the first time I can remember a plan going per schedule and better than planned. This was easily the best connectivity launch in business aviation history for a global satellite communication system."
Inmarsat will be pushing this message at NBAA and is also "working on a couple of announcements", says Weidemeyer. He adds that since Jet ConneX launched, feedback from customers has been “absolutely amazing”.
"Customers have sent us pictures of 11 or 12 devices all on the table and streaming."
Inmarsat is "on pace" with securing all of its current STCs, which will be "all done by the end of the year, and then there are another 10 behind that", says Weidemeyer.
"Every aircraft you fly, as long as it can take a tail-mount antenna, can have Jet ConneX," he adds. However, in-flight connectivity providers that target the smaller end of the business jet market, such as Gogo, should not rest easy as Inmarsat is also looking for ways to enter their market.
"We’re working with partners to figure out how we can install Jet ConneX on aircraft that can't take a tail-mount antenna," says Weidemeyer, noting the possibility of developing a flat-panel antenna. "The biggest thing we're seeing is customers constantly wanting more bandwidth, even on smaller aircraft."
There is "no time horizon" on this project but it is clear that Inmarsat has this new market segment firmly in its sights.
The UK-based satellite company plans to spend the next two years "making sure we execute [on Jet ConneX] and getting our STCs", says Weidemeyer.
Its line to customers looking at both the Inmarsat and ViaSat services is that only Inmarsat can currently offer full global coverage on a Ka-band network. "We ask customers, 'where do you fly?' And they say, 'everywhere', so we say, 'okay, then you have to have global coverage and there's only one network that covers you,'" says Weidemeyer.
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Source: Flight International
