On March 20, 2008, the first ever authorized in-flight mobile phone call was made from an Emirates Airlines Airbus A340-300 flying at 9,000 meters from Dubai to Casablanca. Passengers were so quick to use the service that an Emirates representative on board meant to make the first call was beaten to it instead — by a matter of seconds — by two speed-dialing passengers.
Airlines in the Middle East see this kind of behavior as confirmation that they are going down the right path by installing the new in-flight mobile phone capability. Emirates has long had in-seat phones available, as have other airlines, but the prohibitive cost, at around $7 per minute, and the credit card swiping hassle made them all but an added decoration to the seat-back for many passengers. But Emirates, catering to the communication hungry business traveler, sees demand for an expanded and convenient in-flight communications package.
“Our customers are already making more than 7,000 calls a month from our in-seat phones,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Emirate’s chairman and chief executive. “So we will be making life easier for those for whom staying in touch has become an important part of their everyday lives.”
Soon, anyone will be able to make and receive mobile phone calls, send text messages, check their email, and, eventually, surf the internet at cruising altitude, and from their own mobile phone, blackberry, or laptop computer. The price of a call will be about the same as a roaming international call — at the cheaper cost of around $4 per minute, according to the service providers.
The charges will appear on the passenger’s monthly mobile bill but the per-minute fee will vary, depending on the service agreement between individual mobile companies and the in-flight mobile service providers, OnAir and Aeromobile.
Aeromobile has integrated the traditional in-seat satellite phone technology, called “Inmarsat Classic Aero,” into a kind of mini mobile phone network. OnAir uses Inmarsat’s upgraded “Swiftbroadband” technology, which offers greater bandwidth and internet browsing capability. Both companies have started installing and testing the equipment after gaining approval from international transportation and communication regulators, and from mobile phone network operators.
Overcoming the technological hurdles
Until recently, the usage of mobile phones in airplanes had been banned for two reasons. First, airline regulators worried mobile phone signals could interfere with an aircraft’s navigation equipment and other sensitive onboard computers.
Second, mobile phone companies feared jets flying overhead filled with chatting passengers would jam or interfere with ground networks, resulting in dropped calls and reduced system capacity.
Now, OnAir and Aeromobile have overcome these concerns — at least enough to satisfy both transportation and communication authorities and the network owners in around 40 countries. They have done it by setting up an isolated wireless mobile network inside the aircraft.
“The analogy actually is to consider that once you get on an Aeromobile equipped aircraft, you’re actually traveling to a new country, and you’re roaming into that country — and that country can actually fly anywhere in the world, wherever that airplane goes,” said David Coiley, AeroMobile’s Vice President of External Relations.
The mini mobile network works like this: inside the cabin, a wireless mobile signal is broadcast like a wireless internet network. The network sends calls to an on-board ‘base station’ modem, where the signal is translated from GSM to Internet Protocol signals. The IP signal is then beamed from the aircraft’s satellite antenna to one of Inmarsat’s satellites. The satellite sends the call to a dedicated ground station, where the call is converted back into a GSM signal and routed to its destination. Receiving a call works in the reverse order. Coiley says the whole process takes about a quarter of a second on average.
It’s still an electronic device
The new regulations will allow mobiles to be used only above 3,000 meters, and, like all electronic devices, never during take off or landing. Passengers are told when it is safe to turn on their mobile devices by a crew announcement. When phones are switched on, they are automatically connected to the aircraft’s network and the customer is greeted with a text message. Dialing a number is the same as making an international call on the ground.
The airborne wireless network prevents mobiles from interfering with the aircraft’s computer systems, since phones emit potentially dangerous electromagnetic waves when they’re searching for a network.
And as Coiley noted, this also keeps the phones from trying to connect to ground based networks below. “It’s actually irrelevant if you’re flying over this country or that country… and irrelevant in terms of what you’re paying,” he said. “We are in this isolated country that does not interfere with the country below it in terms of communications.”
With the currently installed technology, the number of possible simultaneous calls is limited. Each base station has a channel, and on the Inmarsat Classic network, each channel can handle between six and twelve calls at the same time. Most planes will only have one channel. Even the most advanced technology, the Inmarsat SwiftBroadband system, can only handle 12 to 24 callers at once, so the entire plane will not be chatting away mid-flight.
Still restricted, but growing
Currently, one will be hard pressed to find a flight with the new technology. Emirates is only flying one aircraft with the mobile in-flight capability. Routes over Chinese and US airspace cannot use them, as those countries’ regulatory agencies have not yet approved the use of any mobile technology on aircraft.
But in the next year, one can expect to start seeing, and hearing, more mobile phones on flights around the Middle East and Europe. The European Union has cleared the way for passengers to use their mobiles in-flight, with Air France currently flying one plane using OnAir’s technology on European routes.
As the Middle East trailblazer, Emirates Airlines plans to invest $27 million dollars to fit its fleet with Aeromobile systems, which cost around $200,000 dollars each, while OnAir is also contracting with Royal Jordanian and Oman Air. In January, Kuwait-based Jazeera Airlines announced plans to equip its fleet of Airbus A320s with OnAir’s in-flight mobile technology by 2009.
“We are excited to be one of the first airlines in the world to install the technology that allows travelers to use their mobile phones during flight, “ Jazeera Chairman and CEO Marwan Boodai said in a statement. “The new service will be available to all passengers for a fee, and will empower passengers to continue communicating with their families or their office while on board.”
Jazeera’s service will “allow unlimited text messages and emails including attachments to be received and sent, and will allow up to 12 simultaneous voice calls,” the company said in a statement.
Air-phone? Air-rage
But maybe not all the passengers are as excited as Jazeera’s Chairman. According to an International Airline Passengers Association survey of 1,500 European and North American airline passengers conducted last June, 45% of respondents said that a person in the seat next to them making a call was “highly annoying,” 10% higher than a wailing infant. Only 5% said a passenger making a call in the next seat was not annoying at all.
But the Middle East may be different. According to YouGovSiraj’s MENA wide research study last November, 47% of business travelers “want complete freedom to use mobiles phones” on an airline, and “43% of leisure travelers want the same.”
Regardless of the regional passenger approval of the technology, Aeromobile and OnAir have put flight crews in direct control of the systems. Pilots can turn the network off during night flights to prevent possible conflicts between passengers who want to talk and those who want to sleep. They can also switch it into text-only mode, or data-only mode. The pre-flight announcement will also plead with passengers to turn off their ring tones by putting the phones in “silent” mode.
Having the ability to make phone calls from an airplane may encourage passengers to switch off their phones at take off and landing. Studies indicate that up to 50% of phones are left on during normal flights. Moreover, the new technology will help to limit potentially dangerous, illegal calls already taking place on flights. A Carnegie Mellon study indicated that in the US, every flight already has one to four calls being made from the aircraft.
Those illegal calls and text messages will probably continue for some time, as airlines estimate the mobile service will not be available on all aircraft until one to four years. Installing in-flight mobile phone technology takes about three days, and can be done during already scheduled aircraft inspections and repairs.
