Trial Will Help Address 'Social And Etiquette Issues'
British carrier bmi has become the first British carrier to
offer its passengers an inflight communications service including
the use of SMS-enabled mobile phones and PDAs (personal digital
assistants). It will also allow access to the internet and email
from laptop computers fitted with GSM data cards... but won't allow
voice calls, out of concern for passenger privacy issues.
The service, which is being supplied by OnAir, will be tested
for six months on a single Airbus A320 aircraft operating between
London Heathrow and Moscow. The UK launch follows the granting of
telecommunications regulatory approval by Ofcom.
"We are delighted to be working with OnAir to make this service
available to customers," said Peter Spencer, managing director of
bmi. "It opens up an exciting new era of travellers being able to
stay in touch by text message and email whilst in the air."
"Our research tells us that our business passengers in
particular have two key concerns -- getting through the airport
quickly and being able to carry on working during their journey, so
we’re confident that many will warmly welcome this
service.
"The trial will help us address some of the social and etiquette
issues regarding the use of mobile communications devices inflight
and provide valuable customer feedback which will be at the heart
of deciding how the service is developed and rolled out across the
remainder of our mid haul fleet. We have chosen not to implement
the voice call option as part of the trial."
Benoit Debains, chief executive of OnAir, added, "With the start
of bmi’s trial, Mobile OnAir is now flying on two airlines in
Europe, making OnAir the leading provider of inflight passenger
communications services. Mobile OnAir is the only service today
which offers SwiftBroadband and it has already flown to 53 cities
in 24 countries in Europe and North Africa."
Mobile OnAir uses satellite
communications technology from Inmarsat, SwiftBroadband, for high
speed air-to-ground communications. Mobile phones and GPRS devices
can be used on any aircraft equipped with the OnAir equipment. The
passenger’s device connects to the OnAir system via a
mini-base station on the aircraft, based around a picocell, which
picks up signals from PDAs and phones and sends them to a
satellite. From there they go to OnAir’s ground network, then
out to the public network.
The OnAir technology can allow up to 12 simultaneous calls per
picocell, as well as unlimited SMS text messages and emails. If
required, further picocells can be added, increasing the number of
simultaneous calls.
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