Air NZ offer mobile services on new 777 aircraft

Forums › Off topic › Air NZ offer mobile services on new 777 aircraft

mckenndk

907 posts

Ultimate Geek

#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.

1 | 2

95 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#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.

Pluralsight

Learn cloud, mobile, security, data and web technologies with Pluralsight (affiliate link).

hairy1

3251 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#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.

Cheers, Matt.

My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.

corksta

2385 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#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

426 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#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.

The comments I write on this forum do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer and as such cannot be taken as official statements of my employer.

icepicknz

309 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#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 :)

Barry Murphy
ISPMap - New Zealand ISP map
Vibe Communications LTD - Business ISP and Wholesale Carrier

Any comments made by myself don't reflect the views of my employer, they are mine and mine alone

nate

6469 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#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.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
76341 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#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.

Please support Geekzone by subscribing, or using one of our referral links: Dosh referral: 00001283 | Sharesies | Goodsync | Mighty Ape | Backblaze

freitasm on Keybase | My technology disclosure

mckenndk

907 posts

Ultimate Geek

#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

BDFL - Memuneh
76341 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#335156 26-May-2010 17:42

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

Please support Geekzone by subscribing, or using one of our referral links: Dosh referral: 00001283 | Sharesies | Goodsync | Mighty Ape | Backblaze

freitasm on Keybase | My technology disclosure

heavenlywild

4554 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#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

124 posts

Master Geek

#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

sleemanj

1474 posts

Uber Geek

#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.

---
James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#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

4554 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#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

95 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#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.

1 | 2