savramesh 37 Report post Posted May 22, 2009 (edited) Economic Times 21 May 2009, 1235 hrs IST NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel customers will soon be able to make and receive calls on their mobiles, send text messages and even access data while travelling on select international airlines, with India's largest mobile phone operator entering into an agreement with an inflight solutions firm. Bharti has tied up with AeroMobile, the world's largest inflight solutions company, which currently has agreements with several global carriers such as Emirates, Qantas, Malaysia Airlines and Turkish Airlines. Bharti will be the first Indian telco to offer this facility to its customers. Globally, several operators across Europe, the US and Australia offer inflight services. Bharti Airtel's chief marketing officer Raghunath Mandava said 434 international flights that has this facility had taken off/landed in India in April. AeroMobile, a UK-based company majority-owned by Norway's Telenor, is in the process of entering into tie-ups with more airlines and this number is set to increase, said Mr Mandava. "While AeroMobile has tie-ups with Emirates & Malaysia Airlines, not every aircraft on their fleet will have this facility. It will depend on whether the aircraft allotted on that route has been wired by AeroMobile. But, passengers will be informed during their bookings if the facility is available on the flight," he said. Airtel customers will only have to activate their international roaming to use the service. On the tariff front, the rates will be similar to what Indian customers pay when they avail international roaming in Norway. This is because, AeroMobile is majority-owned by Norway's Telenor. An outgoing call will cost Rs 188 per minute while it will be Rs 24 per minute for incoming calls. Passengers will be charged Rs 41 for an outgoing SMS while incoming SMSs will be free. Bharti did not give any revenue projections, but said it was targeting niche customers flying abroad. Passengers on international flights will not be able to use their handsets while flying over India as existing regulations do not permit cellular services on aircraft flying over Indian air space. "This facility will remain with the Captain of the aircraft. He can switch it on when the aircraft is outside the Indian air space, or turn it off, when it enters the country," Mr Mandava said. In March, Malaysia Airlines, announced that passengers using in-flight mobile services had exceeded 40% of the total. "Data devices such as BlackBerry are proving to be popular, with data traffic on some flights exceeding 2MB, the equivalent of 40 Black-Berry users sending and receiving email," the airline added in a statement. According to AeroMobile's website, caller ID will also function as normal during inflight calls. "Simply switch your mobile phone on inflight to access GSM services, just as you would while traveling abroad. You will be billed via your existing mobile phone service provider. GPRS and all other IP based services (e.g. internet) is available. More applications will become possible once higher speed satellite communications services become available," the company website says. AeroMobile has an agreement with the world's largest aircraft maker Boeing whereby the latter will install this technology in all the new planes it manufactures. Edited June 6, 2009 by savramesh Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
savramesh 37 Report post Posted June 6, 2009 Carriers to soon take a call on on-board mobile telephony IndianExpress.com Saturday , Jun 06, 2009 at 0043 hrs IST New Delhi: In the midst of plunging load factors on the domestic sector and rising operational costs, loss-making carriers are now turning to alternative revenue models to beef up their balance sheets. As a first, low-cost carriers are weighing the option of providing on-board telephony on their flights as an additional source of revenue. “We are in talks with several low-cost carriers in India to provide on-board mobile telephony through On Air,” SITA regional vice-president Damian Hickey told The Indian Express. On Air, a joint venture between SITA and Airbus, is a mobile telephony service that enables flyers to use their own mobile phones to send and receive emails, exchange text messages and make and receive voice calls and access the Internet. On-board mobile telephony operates on a revenue share model where the airline ties up with several mobile service providers operating in the country. The charges incurred on making such calls from the flyer’s own mobile are equivalent to international roaming. Under a non-disclosure pact, Hickey was unable to divulge further details or names of the airlines involved. “We are likely to finalise negotiations by end of this year,” Hickey added. Recently, all business-class configuration Paramount Airways had announced the launch of on-board mobile telephony, pending clearances from Director General of Civil Aviation. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
