November 15, 2006 at 12:06 pm · Authored by Ewan · Filed under Operators

Link: webitpr | MACH selected by AeroMobile for World’s First In-Flight Mobile Phone Service

MACH, one of the leading providers of inter-operator solutions to the telecommunications and data industry worldwide, today announced that it has been selected as a partner by AeroMobile to support the deployment of the world’s first in-flight mobile service. MACH’s expertise in financial and data clearing services made the company the ideal choice for AeroMobile in this venture to bring mobile roaming to the skies.

Good news for Mach.

I linked to this release in particular because it gives a good overview of how the service is going to work on Emirates. All those afraid of air rage as a result of giving people the ability to yap away on their phones pay attention to this point:

AeroMobile’s service will allow mobile users to stay in touch with family, friends or colleagues using voice and text messaging. The cabin crew can also control the system and select operating modes which can be especially useful for overnight flights when the text only operation mode can be used to ensure the privacy of passengers.

I imagine that one of the big barriers to people chatting away on their phones whilst flying will be cost. I’m sure it’ll be a rather hefty per-minute charge — one that isn’t lowered by the likes of Vodafone’s Passport deal.