AeroMobile Makes Personal Communications A Reality For Passengers

1st April, 2008 – AeroMobile, the pioneering provider of inflight mobile phone services, is leading the way with inflight passenger connectivity following the launch of its system with Emirates Airline last month, and the announcement of new airline customers.
 
The AeroMobile system debuted on an Emirates Airbus A340-300 aircraft on its Dubai – Casablanca service on March 20th. The airline’s passengers were able to make and receive voice calls – the first ever made on a commercial flight - and send and receive SMS text messages via their mobile phones.
 
The system, which has received full STC (supplemental type certificate) approval from EASA, has also been installed on an Emirates Boeing 777-300 aircraft.
 
On the same day as the Emirates launch, Qantas Airways announced that it plans to install AeroMobile on its Boeing 767 and Airbus A330 aircraft which operate domestically within Australia. This follows the hugely successful nine-month trial of AeroMobile’s GPRS data and text messaging that Qantas conducted with AeroMobile from April 2007.
 
AeroMobile’s newest customer, V Australia, is taking advantage of its associations with Panasonic and Boeing to enable the AeroMobile technology to be installed during the manufacture of its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Through AeroMobile’s relationship with Panasonic, this is the first time the Panasonic eXPhone system has been line-fitted during an aircraft’s manufacture, and will enable V Australia to offer SMS text message and email GPRS capability to its passengers across its entire fleet from its launch later this year.
 
AeroMobile chief executive Bjorn-Taale Sandberg said: “AeroMobile is making in-flight personal  communications a reality, enabling them to stay in touch exactly as they would on the ground, whether by voice, text or email.
 
He added: “This year will see AeroMobile launch numerous projects with our airline partners around the globe, utilising Inmarsat’s satcom systems, coupled with our technology and, in many cases, the innovative Panasonic eXPhone system too”
 
AeroMobile’s customer projects now operate with all of Inmarsat’s Classic, Swift64 and SwiftBroadband services, leveraging AeroMobile’s unique technological capability to operate across the entire range of the satcom provider’s services. AeroMobile has also developed wireless LAN (WLAN) solutions able to use Inmarsat’s latest SwiftBroadband service, rounding out a complete portfolio of AeroMobile passenger connectivity services for airlines and their passengers.
 
Airlines have had a further opportunity to hear directly from AeroMobile about its capabilities and the benefits of providing connectivity services to passengers at a workshop it held in Hamburg prior to the Aircraft Interiors Expo.
 
For more information about AeroMobile, visit their stand (4D15) at Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg from 1st – 3rd April, 2008 or visit www.aeromobile.net
 
- Ends -
 
Notes to Editors
 
AeroMobile Limited is a UK-based company owned by ARINC Inc and Telenor ASA. It has been pursuing the objective of allowing the safe use of passengers own mobile phones and PDAs since 2003 in response to market demands. AeroMobile is the first in-flight mobile technology to be commercially available and first flew in June 2005 on Boeing’s 777-200LR ‘Worldliner’ demonstrator aircraft. 
 
AeroMobile is teamed with Panasonic Avionics Corporation, the Panasonic’s market-leading in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems provider, to offer the AeroMobile aircraft technology under the eXPhone brand as an integral part of Panasonic’s IFE systems.
 
 
 
For more information contact:
Steve Double or Charlie Hampton
at Bell Pottinger Business & Brand
Telephone: 020 7861 2449/2431
E-Mail: champton@bell-pottinger.co.uk