It can't happen too soon. Aircraft radios have been in the Stone Age for far too long.
This will permit multiple channels on each frequency, stop "stamping" on another aircraft's messages, clear up the reception quality, and encode to stop the increasing problem of malicious fake broadcasts.
The only problem is that my old King KX99 will be obsolete, so I won't be able to get the ATIS before getting out of bed!
I remember an old cartoon I saw of an aircraft in flight. Two speech bubbles emerging, one from the front, one from that back. Up front, a pilot is saying "Hello, Karachi - hello Karachi, how do you read me? Hello Karachi? SHUT UP, DELHI. Hello Karachi?". Meanwhile down the back, on the satphone, a hostie is saying "Hello Mum? It's Tracey - how are you? Yeah... got it yesterday. How's Dad's Lumbago? Oh dear..."!