February 17, 2005

OnAir signed an agreement with aircraft manufacturer Airbus to provide its in-flight communications system as a standard option for its airplanes.

Separately, Boingo Wireless inked an agreement that will enable its customers to roam in mid air.

OnAir, a joint venture between Airbus and SITA Information Networking Computing, says the system will enable passengers to not only connect to the Internet, but also use their mobile devices, including phones and PDAs, to communicate with people on the ground and other passengers on the plane.

Aviation authorities still must approve in-flight mobile phone use.

OnAir believes approval from the EU authorities will happen soon. In the United States, the FCC is reviewing rules governing the use of cell phones on aircraft.

The FCC is making 4 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum available to providers through an auction process, but at the time of the announcement stressed that whether to give the green light to enable cell phone use on board flights is an issue the industry and consumers need to hammer out.

"Because of our partnership with the world's leading aircraft manufacturer, we are confident that we will be able to satisfy aviation authorities that it is safe to use our service on board aircraft over both land and water," OnAir CEO George Cooper said in a statement.

As for Boingo Wireless, it revealed a deal with Connexion by Boeing to enable its customers to roam on the high-speed mobile Internet in-flight service.

The networks must be integrated, but once complete Boingo customers will be able to connect on airlines that sport the Connexion by Boeing service, including aircraft owned by Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines System, Japan Airlines and ANA.

Singapore Airlines, China Airlines, Korean Air and Asiana plan to introduce the service on select flights later this year.

Connexion by Boeing also has a roaming agreement with NTT DoCoMo that makes the in-flight high-speed Internet service available to DoCoMo's Mzone wireless LAN service users.

Source: Wireless Week