One of the things I love about flying is that for a set amount of time, you’re disconnected from the greater outside world. Well Virgin Atlantic wish to fully smash my desire for quiet with the announcement today that the new Airbus A330 aircraft will have Mobile Phone Call Reception installed.
Unlike the service offered on the British Airways Club World City Service which allows Data and SMS, the Virgin Atlantic system will feature the full suite – that’s Voice, SMS and Data.
Wonderful.
Installation of the hardware will be on the on Virgins Atlantic A330’s (3 Class version), and retrofitted to the Boeing 747. The aircraft will offer Aeromobile’s service via roaming agreements, and will be installed on 20 of its aircraft.
Looking at the services if you desire to annoy your friends in the sky, you’ll get
- Voice (Send and Receive Calls)
- SMS (Send and Receive Text Messaging)
- Data (Limited to GRPS – 2G speeds)
Considering the amount of bandwidth on a plane, GPRS speeds is really no surprise.
Charges will be not that eye-watering depending on your budget – these will be within your provider’s international roaming rates. However (and a big however), for UK customers – only O2 and Vodafone, have signed up. Everyone else is excluded.
So you’ll be able to use your phone at cruise, but not at the following times
- Take off
- Landing
- Within 250 miles of US Airspace where the service must be disabled by US Law
I’ll be first to admit for those who desperately need to remain in contact with their office, this is a wonderful thing. For the rest of us who like being disconnected – even if it is a few hours in the air – this really brings the hell of modern life to you at 30,000ft and above…
I wonder why the service must be shut down within 250 miles of US airspace?
But I agree with you – hearing a loud abnoxious DYKWIA chat for hours next to me isn’t my idea of awesome. Cue excessive alcohol consumption to lull me into a deep sleep 🙂
Probably the usual excuse for anything – Anti-Terrorism protection.
Could be time to get a decent pair of noise isolation/cancellation headphones 😉
Thanks for the heads up, I’ll never fly Virgin again.
Ridiculous. It’s already bad enough that we have to deal with obnoxious self-important cell phone cyborgs in the lounges, during departure and arrival.
Will not fly them anymore.
As it was with Smokers and Non-smokers in the old days: a separate section for Callers and Non-callers?
With the noise on aircraft voices will ne loud. This is going to lead to conflicts and unhappiness between passengers. Not good in a plane. Some rules may be needed, like not phoning from your seat but in a galley or some such. Not sure where.
Convert one of the lavatories into a phone booth 🙂