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a320 posts

bmi launches in-flight communications trial, voice gratefully excluded

by Darren Murph posted Dec 15th 2008 @ 8:40PM

We all know how the British hate lagging behind the French, so it's no shock to see bmi following Air France in the in-flight communications game. The airline has just announced that it will soon launch a six month trial of the OnAir service, though not surprisingly, voice calls will not be a part of said run. Instead, users in a single A320 making loops from London to Moscow will be able to send text messages whilst airborne, and in case that's too boring, users with GSM data cards will also be able to hop online. There's no mention of a VoIP ban, but given the clear anti-voice stance, we doubt the kind attendants would let you chatter long before giving you the evil eye.

JetBlue's LiveTV unit to snatch up Verizon's Airfone network

by Darren Murph posted Jun 9th 2008 @ 8:12AM

Nary a week after JetBlue expanded its in-flight internet services on BetaBlue comes news that the airline's LiveTV unit will be picking up Verizon's Airfone network. As you can glean, the purchase is being made in order to further "develop in-flight email and internet services," and while no purchase price was disclosed by either outfit, we are told that LiveTV will receive "100 air-to-ground US communications towers and Airfone's corporate and government aviation clients on January 1st." That's nice and all, but can't we get something out of this sooner?