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Qantas to test in-flight SMS
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by Markus Schlegel | April 20, 2007 at 05:09 am
259 views | 10 Recommendations | 1 comment
It seems that cellphone connections will be enabled by Qantas. German carriers have said that they may follow suit and enable GPRS and SMS connects, but not marathon calls, as a matter of social acceptability aboard flights.
The question remains over how multi-standard picocells (CDMA/TDMA) will be implemented on flights between countries which run different cell telephony standards.
Australia-based airline Qantas has been given the green light to start testing in-flight mobile phone services, but voice services will be disabled. The Australian Communications and Media Authority gave the thumbs-up late Wednesday to a limited evaluation of GSM mobile phones and GPRS devices, but only for one commercial aircraft. According to a Qantas spokesperson, the three-month trial will involve a Boeing 767 plying between domestic capital cities.
Qantas has decided to limit the pilot to e-mail and text, and disable voice services. The spokesperson said once the e-mail and SMS evaluation ends, Qantas will decide if voice calls should be tested. Qantas said passengers wanting to send or receive an SMS will need international roaming activated, and a GSM mobile phone. To send or receive e-mail messages, a GPRS-enabled device would do. Telstra, Panasonic Avionics and AeroMobile will be part of the exercise.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 06:38 on April 20th, 2007
Markus, nice find. Several groups suggest taht mobile calls onboard a plane would not compromise safety, but many silently dread the advent of onboard mobile rudeness. Good stuff.