New Delhi: Emirates' flyers to, from and over India may soon be allowed to make calls using their mobile phones, apart from offering onboard internet. The Dubai-based mega airline has told TOI it will seek regulatory approvals to allow "customers to connect using Wi-Fi and mobile phones over India very soon."
Emirates' head of customer experience Patrick Brannelly told TOI: "TRAI recommendation to allow in-flight Wi-Fi and mobile services on flights within Indian airspace is good news for our customers. We are confident that our satellite data providers will engage with the Indian authorities to establish regulatory clarity for licensing and operations, to meet necessary requirements, thereby allowing our customers to connect using Wi-Fi and mobile phones over India very soon."
About voice calls, the Emirates website says: "Make calls on your mobile just as you would when you're on the ground. To make calls or use data on your mobile, your mobile phone or global roaming provider must have a roaming agreement with our service providers. You'll be charged by your service provider in line with international roaming rates." This is for countries that allow use of mobile phones in air, a list that India joined on January 19.
Earlier Lufthansa had also said it will offer WiFi on its India flight "the moment it is allowed to" but not enable mobile services as the same are seen as too much of a nuisance for fellow travellers. Another leading international airline that already has WiFi and phones on its planes says it does not encourage voice calls during flights.
"Downloading a video and playing it loud or making VOIP calls is something that we do not encourage. Our crew tells such passengers to be mindful of not disturbing fellow passengers. Our aircraft have long had seat-back phones but they are not used much due to their high costs. Similarly VOIP calls, though possible by connecting personal electronic devices to WiFi, are also not much used as this requires huge consumption of expensive data," an official of this airline said.
01/02/18 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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Emirates' head of customer experience Patrick Brannelly told TOI: "TRAI recommendation to allow in-flight Wi-Fi and mobile services on flights within Indian airspace is good news for our customers. We are confident that our satellite data providers will engage with the Indian authorities to establish regulatory clarity for licensing and operations, to meet necessary requirements, thereby allowing our customers to connect using Wi-Fi and mobile phones over India very soon."
About voice calls, the Emirates website says: "Make calls on your mobile just as you would when you're on the ground. To make calls or use data on your mobile, your mobile phone or global roaming provider must have a roaming agreement with our service providers. You'll be charged by your service provider in line with international roaming rates." This is for countries that allow use of mobile phones in air, a list that India joined on January 19.
Earlier Lufthansa had also said it will offer WiFi on its India flight "the moment it is allowed to" but not enable mobile services as the same are seen as too much of a nuisance for fellow travellers. Another leading international airline that already has WiFi and phones on its planes says it does not encourage voice calls during flights.
"Downloading a video and playing it loud or making VOIP calls is something that we do not encourage. Our crew tells such passengers to be mindful of not disturbing fellow passengers. Our aircraft have long had seat-back phones but they are not used much due to their high costs. Similarly VOIP calls, though possible by connecting personal electronic devices to WiFi, are also not much used as this requires huge consumption of expensive data," an official of this airline said.
01/02/18 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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