ZTE USA, Inc. a division of ZTE Corporation, a top worldwide provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, and Qualcomm Incorporated, a leading developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies and data solutions, made announcement about their partnership with Aircell® to make the networking platform for Aircell’s new Inflight Internet service, Gogo®, which first began service in August on select American Airlines flights.  

Aircell’s Air-to-Ground (ATG) service relies on ZTE's EV-DO Rev. A base stations and IP switching platform and Qualcomm's aircraft-mounted modems.  ZTE, Aircell and Qualcomm's R&D group acted closely to engineer a custom solution, which would make the most of the performance of the in-flight service.

ZTE's base stations are stationed all over U.S. to back up service for Aircell's airline customers. While en route, subscriber WiFi traffic is transmitted to ZTE's CDMA EV-DO Rev. A networking equipment via Qualcomm's aircraft-mounted modems.  The technology was engineered to accommodate the high speed and high altitude of aircraft connecting with the base station.  As a result, the service dramatically improves upon previous in-flight wireless services, which were slow, expensive and complex.

Dr. George Sun, CEO, ZTE USA, said, “At ZTE, we are committed to developing customized and flexible solutions that enable our customers and partners to offer their own customers the most innovative and desirable applications and services. In this instance, by working closely with Aircell and Qualcomm, we were able to tap into the brightest R&D minds available to create the most cutting-edge and flexible networking platform. We look forward to working with Aircell and Qualcomm to scale the platform to support increasing demand and future expansion of the service.”

Ahmad Jalali, vice president of technology for Qualcomm said, “Qualcomm was pleased to collaborate with Aircell and ZTE to help enable this unique wireless data innovation. EV-DO Rev. A was a clear choice for creating a powerful, spectrally efficient and high-speed data connection to carry the aircraft's passenger traffic to ZTE base stations on the ground.”
 
Joe Cruz, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Aircell, said, “When designing our industry-first in-flight mobile broadband service, we were searching for companies that would work hand-in-hand with us to create a flexible and customized networking platform that was optimized for our unique ATG needs. We found those allies in ZTE and Qualcomm.  As a result, we are able to offer our customers the best possible broadband experience on North America's only comprehensive Inflight Internet service.”