Now, chat, surf and even speak mid-air

New Delhi: Aviation regulators around the world are not willing to allow you use you cell phone on board, but that does not mean that you cannot keep in touch as you hop from Mumbai to Chennai or Goa to Hyderabad.
No need to get anxious about keeping the mobile off; soon you may be able to chat, surf and even speak through the personal phone attached to your seat, just the way people connect on international flights of leading global airlines.
Technology is making access better and cheaper; multinationals like Honeywell are keen to offer the technology to Indian airline companies and high-fliers like UB Group’s Kingfisher are willing to test the waters. That is an interesting combination that could enable busy-bee biz brass to fire a few mails, catch up with some homework or provide a tip-off to their sales team while they are on a domestic flight.
The view earlier was that satcom link was expensive and its use may be restricted to long-haul flights and connections linking different time zones. While technology advancement is improving capability, it is also bringing down costs.
There is a lot of potential in India, feels Chris Benich — director of aerospace regulatory affairs at Honeywell. No Indian airline company now uses satcom systems in the domestic circuit and there are lot of challenges but rapidly-evolving technology may hold answers to all the issues.
21/05/07 G Ganapathy Subramaniam/Economic Times

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Categories: Kingfisher May 2007, New May 2007