By Jo Best, 19 February 2009 15:07
NEWS
By 2010, passengers on all Ryanair planes will be able to make calls and send SMSes during their flights.
From today, more than 20 planes flying to and from Dublin will take to the skies offering travellers mile-high talk, text and email functionality using a system from OnAir.
The airline expects to rollout the service to the rest of its 170-strong fleet within the next 18 months.
Passengers will be charged their operator's respective roaming rate for communications during the flight.
To use the service, travellers will need to be signed up with an operator that has an agreement with OnAir. Currently O2 is signed up with the company, which is also in talks with 3, Orange and Vodafone.
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1. Dominic Smith, marketing director, Cerillion Technologies
If this announcement represents the start of a new trend, it could herald a rich seam of new, potentially lucrative service opportunities for both mobile operators and airline carriers. Though the prospect of passengers making voice calls on-board will be an irritation to many, email, SMS and internet browsing in the air could become very popular.
In tapping into "airline roaming", mobile operators will be extending their well established roaming plans, however it will be vital that they translate these premium services into straightforward customer offerings. Customers are not concerned by the underlying technology, they just want a high-quality service and bills that are clear and easy to understand.
In particular, operators need to keep pricing transparent so users always know how much they are spending without the risk of overspend or so-called “bill shock” at the end of the month. Real-time charging systems and the ability for users to determine their own service-level spending controls will be an essential tool for operators looking to benefit from this new service.