Benzinga | Jan 20, 2022 09:22AM EST

Airspan Networks And Gogo Highlight Completion Of 5G Network Testbed Of First 7 mMIMO Sites For Gogo's National 5G Air-to-Ground Network

Airspan Networks Inc., a subsidiary of Airspan Network Holdings Inc. (NYSE:MIMO), which provides ground-breaking, disruptive software and hardware for 5G network solutions, and Gogo Business Aviation (NASDAQ:GOGO) have completed another key network milestone, announcing the completion of Gogo's seven-tower 5G testbed as part of the deployment of its nationwide 5G Air-to-Ground (ATG) network.

Gogo's 5G ATG network is powered by Airspan's OpenRANGE Air5G Sub-6 GHZ Radio Unit (RU) macros, fully virtualized OpenRANGE vCU (Centralized Unit) and vDU (Distributed Unit) software, and massive MIMO antennas. The unique antenna solutions are ruggedized and proven for harsh environments, and provide a series of critical features including advanced beam shaping, high-precision beam pointing, specifically designed beam profiles for long range air-to-ground applications, critical interference suppression, and support of Doppler Effect exceeding 3GPP (industry standard) speeds by four times -- in excess of 1200 km/hour/750 MPH.

"These seven sites will serve as a testbed for our 150-tower nationwide network," said Mike Rupert, vice president of network operations for Gogo Business Aviation. "The testbed includes sites in both remote and populated locations to validate the network is operating as designed in all -- and many -- challenging environments."

Plans call for rapid deployment of additional sites throughout the first half of 2022, and Rupert said Gogo remains on track to launch its 5G ATG network in the second half of the year, leveraging Airspan's portfolio of 5G advanced 5G infrastructure, innovative Open RAN virtualized software and hardware, and 5G antennas.