Avionics News October 2022 - 50

DATA USE GROWING BY 40% PER YEAR
Continued from page 49
For Gogo dealers, this increasing aircraft utilization and
soaring data consumption means Gogo installations will
be growing much like the ADS-B business did for avionics
shops leading up to the 2020 mandate. Only 28% of aircraft
that are candidates to become connected with Gogo systems
currently have them installed, and the increase in data use
is also driving the sale of more capable systems such as
Avance, which is set up to handle Gogo's 5G network.
There are an average of nine devices connected on an
aircraft now, up 80% since 2015. " So the needs of our
passengers and our people who use in-flight
connectivity are increasing year over
year, " said David Salvador at the AEA
International Convention & Trade Show in
New Orleans on March 28. " The need for
streaming and video conferencing is huge. "
Aguirre remembers using a flip phone
on business aircraft when Aircell (which
became Gogo) started business in 1991
to bring telecommunications connections
to business aircraft. And a few pioneering
users of the service even knew that by
hitting a key three times a text message
could be sent. This service wasn't chewing
up much bandwidth. " And then with the
development of the smartphone you start
seeing different data applications and
people start using their phones to check
the weather, to pull up a map and sending
emails on the airplane, " Aguirre said.
and tablets. It is also a good idea to limit the number of
devices on an aircraft that are active at any one time and to
power down devices that otherwise consume small amounts
of bandwidth in the background.
PASSENGERS ON
BUSINESS JETS ARE
USING TRIPLE THE
AMOUNT OF DATA
SINCE 2011 AND
DOUBLE THE AMOUNT
OF DATA USED IN 2014
AS CONSUMPTION HAS
CLIMBED FROM 100 TO
300 MEGABYTES PER
FLIGHT ON AVERAGE,
ACCORDING TO GOGO,
WHICH DOMINATES THE
MARKET FOR CONNECTED
SYSTEMS, SERVICE
AND SUPPORT.
Streaming a video of a Hollywood blockbuster movie
from the ground consumes lots of bandwidth compared to
downloading an Excel spreadsheet. It is best to download
movies on the ground to watch later in flight from a server
on the plane. And content within apps such as autoplaying
Facebook video can use bandwidth as well. Gogo's in-flight
entertainment system automatically connects the cabin
to a ground source of movies in a hangar at an FBO for
automatic download of the latest available content.
Gogo's 5G network will allow
customers to move data at rates of 25
megabits per second up to 75 to 80 at the
peak usage. " Someone asked me if that is
going to be enough, and I said yes it will
be enough for a little bit, " Aguirre said.
" When Google launched its network, 1
mbps was enough because they were doing
phone calls, text messaging and emails.
Now we need 4 to 6 mbps, and with
Zoom you really need 9 or 10 mbps. The
revolution and advancement in technology
and applications is not going to diminish. "
" Connectivity is not just about
productivity because younger generations
are using it for just about everything.
It's for entertainment, leisure, business
and just staying in contact with people, "
Aguirre said. And if people want to use
When video conferencing capability over computers was
first invented in the 1990s, some thought this might reduce
the need for business travel. However, the pandemic showed
that, in an emergency, video conferencing could be a
lifesaver to keep businesses functioning while people waited
for business travel to resume. But who would have thought
that video conferencing would take place form an aircraft
in flight or one parked on a ramp at an airport and become
a vital tool for keeping business in business? Aguirre said
he jokes with customers that this thing called the internet is
going to catch on, just watch.
Another demand for data transfer comes from the cloud,
which involves constant updates of apps and file transfers
because photos and emails are no longer stored on laptops
or mobile devices. Gogo works with its customers on how to
suspend background app updates during a flight on phones
50 avionics news * october 2022
their own Netflix or Hulu subscriptions to stream movies
to the aircraft from the ground in high definition, then it
is going to consume a gigabyte or two or three of data. As
a business aviation customer upgrades cabin connectivity
from 3G to 4G to 5G, they will have to continue to invest
in their network " because passenger utilization and
dependency on the internet, technology and applications are
constantly changing and this will require more and more
data. "
At the AEA Convention in New Orleans, Salvador noted
that traditionalists (the silent generation born between 1928
and 1945) have all but aged out of Gogo's market. Baby
boomers born from 1946 through 1964 now account for
32% of the market.
More than 60% of Gogo's market is now populated by
Generation X and millennials. Baby boomers cut their
teeth flying on earlier generation business aircraft including
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