SmartSky Networks has surpassed 200 granted patents. The portfolio contains innovations that empower and protect the company's next-generation inflight broadband service, launching later this year.

“We set out to transform aviation through innovations in communications technology and services,” says company CEO David Helfgott. “Our expanding patent portfolio represents the latest advances in a host of sophisticated tech needed to deliver on the promise of the truly connected aircraft, from our cutting-edge radio and antenna hardware to our sophisticated next-generation network and new aviation-related digital services.”

SmartSky's patents cover a breadth of areas crucial to providing office-grade inflight communications and related services, including air-to-ground specific features of network architecture, operation in the 2.4 GHz unlicensed band, beamforming, spectrum re-use, seamless handoff and signal processing. In the digital services arena, patents cover topics including an aerospace commerce exchange (Skytelligence), uses of blockchain relevant to aviation and dynamic five-dimensional aircraft trajectory management.