Ewan at SMS Text News reported in June that some airlines will now be allowing mobile phones to be used on board. Air France, BMI, Portuguese airline TAP and budget airline Ryanair are said to be some of the first to sign up for the service.

This brings up a number of public etiquette questions as passengers with different cultural backgrounds are forced to cohabit in a cramped space for a few hours. Imagine sitting amongst a flock of rowdy lads all chatting on their mobiles, or next to a businessman who feels the need to broadcast all of his dealings to the rest of the plane. However, there are undeniable benefits to being able to quickly text a friend to let them know where you’ll meet them for dinner once you’ve landed, or call to warn them that you’re still circling above Heathrow.

The cost of a call, however, might make for short conversations.

While OnAir does not set the fees, Lake said the expected cost would be around $2.50 per minute for calls and 50 cents per SMS message.

“Instead of roaming in a country, you are effectively roaming in the sky,” Lake said. “We send your call via satellite down to the GSM network.”

Call charges will appear on customer phone bills in an identical way to international roaming, with revenue shared between the airlines, OnAir and the customer’s own phone company.

At these rates, passengers are likely to limit their use to essential calls unless they’re feeling particularly flush with cash.

How do you feel about this? Would you prefer a relatively quiet flight, or the ability to conduct business as usual while on board?

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 10:59 am and is filed under Mobile devices, Network Operators. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.