ACMA gears up to allow in-flight mobile phone usage

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 08 December 2009 05:08

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

The ACMA is proposing new spectrum licensing rules that would enable airlines to offer mobile phone services in-flight, but these are likely to be limited to SMS and GPRS data - Australian airlines aren't keen to offer voice services.

In practice such a service would be implemented via a small cellular base station, a picocell, installed on board the aircraft along with a control unit. Communication with the outside world would be via a satellite link.

The control unit would block most of the frequencies normally used by mobile phones, preventing them from communications directly with terrestrial cellular networks and would force them to use one of a handful of specific bands to communicate with the picocell.

The ACMA has already amended prohibitions on the use of mobile phone jammers to allow for operation of the control unit and has now issued a discussion paper looking at various options for licensing the spectrum that an in-flight mobile service would use. Submissions are due by 29 January 2010.

According to ACMA chairman, Chris Chapman, "In 2007 the ACMA took the regulatory lead ... by approving a trial of in-flight mobile communications on a single Qantas aircraft on domestic routes. In view of the success of the trial and service announcements by Qantas and V Australia [the international airline arm of Virgin Blue], the ACMA is now proposing radiocommunications licensing arrangements that would allow in-flight mobile communications services on Australian aircraft."

However the ACMA says that both Qantas and V Australia have publicly indicated their plans to offer in-flight SMS and GPRS services, but to its knowledge, neither airline has indicated an intention to offer voice services.

However voice has proved extremely popular with those airlines that offer the service. Emirates airline announced in February that it had signed up its 100,000th user and that it had 31 aircraft equipped to support mobile phone usage. Signing up the first 50,000 users took nine months, the second 50,000 just two months.

Emirates said: "The AeroMobile in-flight system allows passengers the choice of safely using their own mobile phones to make and receive phone calls and text messages from Emirates aircraft, with charges in line with international roaming rates. The fast-growing popularity of the service sees typically more than 30 percent of passengers on each flight taking advantage of the ... system."