TAG | Qantas in-flight email and SMS at sky high prices? |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Tuesday, 25 March 2008 | |
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Page 2 of 3 Borghetti notes that: "The evaluation of this new technology was a great success”, and says that: “An overwhelming majority of passengers involved in the evaluation indicated they wanted access to inflight connectivity on an ongoing basis.”Featured Whitepaper
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Borghetti continued, saying: "We are committed to supporting their needs and will continue to be the market leader in introducing innovative business relevant products and services. This next generation technology will allow them to use their inflight time more effectively”. I’m not quite sure why the words ‘GPRS’ and ‘next generation’ belong together in the same press release in 2008, but hey, they do if you’re Qantas, and their partner, Aeromobile. Qantas say that AeroMobile “developed the technology which allows mobile phones and portable devices to be used safely in-flight without interference to aircraft systems or the ground communication network.” Qantas and Aermobile said they were “working with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and other agencies to ensure the system operated in accordance with Australian regulatory and legal requirements.” In another sign that true consumer convenience is at the bottom of Qantas’ list of priorities, the press release notes that: “Voice connectivity is a feature of the technology but will not be activated as part of the new service.” I suppose it will be years yet before Jetstar, the budget arm of Qantas, will ever get this service in any affordable form, with true in-flight and affordable broadband seemingly light years away. But having said all of that, an in-flight email and SMS service like this has been a very long time coming to Australian skies, and is one that a segment of the market will use with great gusto, no matter the cost. Qantas does deserve a tiny bit of kudos to Qantas for getting ready to introduce SMS and email capability from year’s end at last, but the “wallet and broadband-friendly skies”, this service is not. So, what other in-flight broadband services are coming to the US this year, while we languish with mega expensive and super slow GPRS? Please read onto page 3. |
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