Vodafone launches in-flight roaming service

Vodafone Egypt launched an in-flight roaming service aboard around 100 aircraft, available aboard EgyptAir where it is provided in partnership with OnAir, the telecom operator said in a statement.

Vodafone customers can make and receive calls, send and receive SMS, and access the internet on the aircraft during flight as they would on the ground. The service is safe and does not affect the navigation instruments, the statement read.

Vodafone Egypt has partnered with in-flight mobile phone services providers: the first is AeroMobile, operating on Emirates and Malaysia Airlines. Their services are currently available on 79 aircraft traveling to over 200 destinations around the world, including the popular Cairo to Dubai route.

The AeroMobile service is also launching later in the year with Air New Zealand and V Australia. In 2011 the service will also be available onboard Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Cathay Pacific Airways

The second company OnAir is the world's only provider of both GSM services and WiFi based internet WiFi offering voice, e-mail, text services and internet access services on Egypt Air, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Royal Jordanian, Oman Air and Qatar Airways, in addition to Wataniya (Kuwait) Airways, TAP Portugal and British Airways. OnAir is also due to launch its services on Emirates, Air Asia, Libyan Airlines, and TAM.

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OnAir behind the EgyptAir connectivity

OnAir has been named as the connectivity provider for EgyptAir's new Airbus A330-300 aircraft which began operations today

It launched full Mobile OnAir and Internet OnAir inflight passenger communications services on the first of EgyptAir's fleet of twin-aisle Airbus 330-300 aircraft – with more scheduled to be equipped in coming months. The aircraft operates to London.

EgyptAir's customers will be able to stay connected inflight using their own mobile phones or smartphones. Customers will also be able to access the Internet just as they do on the ground by connecting their laptops wirelessly.

In providing both GSM/GPRS as well as Wi-Fi Internet, OnAir enables EgyptAir's customers to have available to them the broadest range of inflight connectivity options available anywhere in the world today, enabling them for example to surf the Internet, check the weather forecast at destination, buy theatre tickets, or make arrangements for transport from their airport to their place of residence – all of this as well as checking in with colleagues or putting in a goodnight call to a loved one.

EgyptAir Airlines Chairman and CEO, Captain Alaa Ashour, said, “Today, we are providing EgyptAir's customers with the latest services and greater choices. OnAir inflight connectivity helps us further differentiate our offering, and enables our customers not only to stay in touch but to access online services as they travel.”

Ian Dawkins, Chief Executive Officer of OnAirsaid: " We’re delighted to be helping provide EgyptAir's customers from today with a full range of connectivity services as they travel – services that travellers are increasingly expecting to have at their disposal. Within 2 to 3 years, we’re convinced that all airlines will demand this level of onboard mobile communications,”
Mobile OnAir uses the industry’s most advanced and extensive infrastructure for mobile communications, along with Inmarsat SwiftBroadband, high capacity services from Inmarsat 4th generation satellites.

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