Air NZ offer mobile services on new 777 aircraft

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mckenndk

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#61952 26-May-2010 15:37

Passengers flying on Air New Zealand's new Boeing 777 will be able to use mobile phones and laptop broadband connections - but it will be expensive.

They are not allowing voice calls however.

The airline says its new 777's arriving in November will enable customers to use their iPhone, Blackberry and GSM mobile phones for emails and text message in flights.

"Feedback from our customers has shown they wish to be able to text, and check emails, to stay in touch with friends, family and colleagues during their long-haul flights," says Ed Sims Air New Zealand Group General Manager.

"Customers onboard our new Boeing 777-300 aircraft will be able to use their own GSM/GPRS devices safely when the system is activated during the cruise stage of flight.

"Passengers will also be requested to keep their phones on 'silent' mode."

Aeromobile will provide the service and customers will be billed by their own service providers on international roaming.

Standard inflight roaming costs apply, which with Telecom XT is 80c per outbound text and no cost to receive them.

The cost for mobile broadband is $40.00 per megabyte of data.

Other mobile phone providers, including Vodafone, will be confirming pricing in the coming months.

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#335121 26-May-2010 16:24

why are they not allowing voice calls? some people may be able to afford them. i can't think why they wouldn't allow voice calls because of the noise because passengers can talk away to each other anyway.

hairy1

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#335123 26-May-2010 16:28

There is probably not enough bandwidth to allow voice calls. Inmarsat Swiftbroadband (as quoted here)

http://www.inmarsat.com/Services/Aeronautical/SwiftBroadband/default.aspx?language=EN&textonly=False

offers data rates at up to 432 kbps.

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corksta

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#335132 26-May-2010 16:39

markh14: why are they not allowing voice calls? some people may be able to afford them. i can't think why they wouldn't allow voice calls because of the noise because passengers can talk away to each other anyway.

My wife talks at a normal level when it's person to person, but get her on a mobile phone and she shouts her little mouth off (especially when people are in a different city, go figure...), so hopefully one reason it's not being allowed is to maintain passengers' comfort. I'd imagine that with the quality of the connection and the ambient noise you'd have to talk a bit louder anyway for the other person to hear you clearly, so imagine a whole row of people trying to talk and have conversations all at the same time.

NealR

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#335136 26-May-2010 16:44

I think it's a great idea to not allow voice calls.

Just allowing people to yabber away on the runway is annoying enough.
Imaging big loud voice "Yes, I've just landed in Miami, Yes for real, Yes I'm actually on the runway, Yes isn't it amazing...." for the whole 10 minutes it takes to taxi to the terminal.

Now imagine this beside you for the whole 12 hours to LA from Auckland.

Big ups to AirNZ for not allowing voice calls.

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icepicknz

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#335140 26-May-2010 16:50

All we need now is a usb charger on the plane for charging cellphones. Longhaul to south africa I'd need my charge to last 16hrs for one of the flights and I doubt that would happen, this is when spare batteries for iphones would come in handy, then again you can buy devices like that... Air NZ Please can you install USB ports to each chair next :)

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nate

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#335144 26-May-2010 17:09

NealR: I think it's a great idea to not allow voice calls.

Just allowing people to yabber away on the runway is annoying enough.
Imaging big loud voice "Yes, I've just landed in Miami, Yes for real, Yes I'm actually on the runway, Yes isn't it amazing...." for the whole 10 minutes it takes to taxi to the terminal.

Now imagine this beside you for the whole 12 hours to LA from Auckland.

Big ups to AirNZ for not allowing voice calls.

+1

It would really be the beginning of the end of peaceful air travel.

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freitasm

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#335151 26-May-2010 17:22

icepicknz: All we need now is a usb charger on the plane for charging cellphones. Longhaul to south africa I'd need my charge to last 16hrs for one of the flights and I doubt that would happen, this is when spare batteries for iphones would come in handy, then again you can buy devices like that... Air NZ Please can you install USB ports to each chair next :)

They already have USB ports in their A320 seats, for you to plug a media player. It can be used for charging.

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mckenndk

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#335153 26-May-2010 17:33

icepicknz: All we need now is a usb charger on the plane for charging cellphones. Longhaul to south africa I'd need my charge to last 16hrs for one of the flights and I doubt that would happen, this is when spare batteries for iphones would come in handy, then again you can buy devices like that... Air NZ Please can you install USB ports to each chair next :)

If the video of their sky couch is anything to go by there is a power outlet and a USB outlet to the left of the screen.
You can see it when the lady orders the coke at 53s

http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/economy-skycouch/

freitasm

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#335156 26-May-2010 17:42

Why bother with mobile and overpriced roaming? They should just provide inflight WiFi instead.

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heavenlywild

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#335162 26-May-2010 18:02

freitasm: Why bother with mobile and overpriced roaming? They should just provide inflight WiFi instead.

Totally agree and so much easier in terms of knowing the costs.

$40 per mb is just, well, nuts! What can you realy do with one mb?

Mooseboy

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#335176 26-May-2010 18:29

heavenlywild:
freitasm: Why bother with mobile and overpriced roaming? They should just provide inflight WiFi instead.

Totally agree and so much easier in terms of knowing the costs.

$40 per mb is just, well, nuts! What can you realy do with one mb?

Totally worth $57.60

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sleemanj

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#335181 26-May-2010 18:43

freitasm: Why bother with mobile and overpriced roaming? They should just provide inflight WiFi instead.

Wouldn't be much cheaper I expect, still need a mobile satellite connection to do the job, and that's very expensive which ever way you swing it.

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NonprayingMantis

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#335192 26-May-2010 18:59

heavenlywild:
freitasm: Why bother with mobile and overpriced roaming? They should just provide inflight WiFi instead.

Totally agree and so much easier in terms of knowing the costs.

$40 per mb is just, well, nuts! What can you realy do with one mb?

check emails.

heavenlywild

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#335212 26-May-2010 20:10

NonprayingMantis:
heavenlywild:
freitasm: Why bother with mobile and overpriced roaming? They should just provide inflight WiFi instead.

Totally agree and so much easier in terms of knowing the costs.

$40 per mb is just, well, nuts! What can you realy do with one mb?

check emails.

I think just getting to Gmail and Hotmail will use up 1mb :P

markh14

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#335266 26-May-2010 21:54

so how will it work?
you hop onto the plane and what appears on your screen? instead of vodafone or telecom will it say 'air new zealand'?
if there is no notification alot of people may get caught out by the high data costs.
do you just text phone numbers normally like 021 or do you need the country code?

if data is allowed couldn't people make calls using skype voip? couldn't people record an audio and send it as a voice message? how is air new zealand going to ban voice calls?

if noise is really the reason they are not allowing voice calls they should just provide ear plugs for passengers. they already provide bags, oxygen masks, so why not ear plugs?

+1 for freedom to choose to make voice calls.

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