Paramount to allow mobile use

New Delhi: From September, passengers flying with Paramount Airways should be able to use their mobile phones while in flight.
“Subject to regulatory approvals, passengers having a roaming facility should be able to receive and make calls from their mobile phones during all phases of the flight, including take-off and landing.
“We are in talks with Sat phone operators to make the service possible. Basically, the aircraft will act as a telecom tower,” the airline’s Managing Director, Mr M. Thiagarajan, said here on Wednesday.
The current regulations do not permit use of mobiles on flights, sources said.
Paramount could be the first domestic airline to offer the facility as at the moment none of the nine scheduled airlines allows passengers to make or receive calls when in flight.
Indeed, airlines insist that passengers switch off their mobile phones as soon as the aircraft doors are shut and not switch them on till the plane comes to a complete halt at the terminal building.
Paramount officials said that some changes will have to be made to the aircraft as all the Embraer planes used by the airline have Satphones.
“For the service to be operational the only change is that we will have to get an attachment which weighs about 50 kg,” one official added. A passenger using the phone facility on the aircraft will not have to pay; the charges will get added to their monthly bill.
Refuting the charge that the facility could be unsafe, Mr Thiagarajan said modern-day aircraft used different frequency wave length than that used by telecom operators.
The start of the service is likely to be a major source of ancillary revenue for the private airline.
20/05/09 Business Line

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Categories: Paramount Airways May 2009