[caption id="attachment_3752" align="aligncenter" width="879"]<a href="http://www.thinkom.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/airline-pilot-ipads-879x485.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-3752"><img class="wp-image-3752 size-full" src="http://www.thinkom.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/airline-pilot-ipads-879x485.jpg" alt="airline-pilot-ipads-879x485" width="879" height="485" /></a> Photo Credit: United Continental Holdings[/caption]

[Space News] Airline broadband providers Gogo, Global Eagle Entertainment (GEE), and ViaSat participated in a debate organized Dec. 7 by the Macquarie Group investment bank, discussing whether today’s aeronautical connectivity business, currently valued at less than $1 billion but estimated to grow past $30 billion in 20 years, will be hugely more valuable in the coming years as bandwidth demand by airlines for their own purposes dwarfs demand by passengers.

"'We view this as a $30 billion industry,' said Michael Small, chief executive of Chicago-based Gogo, whose U.S.-based air-to-ground business is now expanding to include Ku-band satellites with Gogo’s new 2Ku aeronautical satellite antenna, and going global with satellite capacity worldwide. 'The industry is not yet at the $1 billion mark, so there is huge growth.'  Gogo expects to report nearly $500 million in revenue in 2015, up from $37 million six years ago."

&nbsp;

Read the full article <a href="http://spacenews.com/will-pilots-or-their-passengers-drive-inflight-broadband-demand-depends-who-you-ask/">here</a>.