AeroMobile™ Working Closely with Telecoms Regulators for Introduction of In-Flight Cell Phones

September 15, 2005

Oslo, Norway and Crawley, UK—AeroMobile™, a joint venture of Telenor and ARINC Incorporated, is taking a leading global role working with telecoms regulators and agencies toward the introduction of safe and approved use of cell phones by airline passengers.

“As the company leading the development of in-flight mobile phone communications, AeroMobile has been very closely involved with both the regulation and the systems testing. The progress made so far is extremely encouraging,” stated Jan Tore Meren, Senior Vice President, Telenor New Business.

AeroMobile has developed and proven the necessary technologies that will bring this capability to aircraft in a safe and cost-effective manner, allowing the capability to meet all necessary aircraft certification and telecoms regulation criteria.

Regulatory bodies such as the CEPT’s European Communications Committee (ECC) and U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are defining the rulemaking in Europe and the USA, two of the most influential markets in the world for the business of cellular service on aircraft. The CEPT/ECC is leading to a definition of operational requirements. This removes the risk of harmful interference between cellular systems onboard aircraft upon terrestrial networks. This definition will pave the way for the corresponding statements in other regions, based on ECC’s technological reputation.

“AeroMobile has taken a leading role in this work with the ECC, through contributions we have made in the areas of measurement, calculations and simulations. “We are very pleased that the preliminary results from technical working groups in ECC SE7, show that aircraft can be operated at cruising altitudes without causing harmful interference to ground networks,” added Meren.

AeroMobile’s approach of close co-operation and communication with the relevant authorities has already led to the Norwegian authorities granting a license to AeroMobile for operation of the AeroMobile system onboard aircraft until 2015.

AeroMobile has adopted a short-term and a long-term strategy to help achieve regulatory approval at the earliest possible date. The short term strategy has been for AeroMobile to support the established regulatory processes such as the ECC and FCC. Included in this support is extensive testing of the AeroMobile solution which will help to assess the risk of interference that on-board cellular systems might create with terrestrial networks. Measurements so far have included in-flight logging of terrestrial signals received into the cabin, on-ground investigations of aircraft attenuation, as well as in-cabin measurements of signal propagation. Further measurements are planned. AeroMobile will continue to make results available to support the regulatory bodies in their examination of this issue.

Longer term, AeroMobile is working closely with national and international regulatory bodies to provide a permanent solution for the use of mobile phones in flight. But further work needs to be carried out, including the analysis by the ECC and other bodies of interference risk, and the general endorsement of the findings.

In the mean time, AeroMobile will seek acceptance for deploying cellular systems onboard aircraft within specific countries on the flight routes of its launch customers. The areas of those countries coupled with flight routes over international waters will initially encompass a sufficient enough geographical area to make the service viable. When further research has been undertaken and accepted, there will be available a procedure for operating GSM onboard aircraft over all terrestrial networks—even in areas where all GSM 1800 bands have been licensed.

With headquarters in Oslo, Norway, Telenor is an international provider of high quality telecommunications, data, and media services, with expanding operations in international mobile and satellite communications. Telenor is one of Norway's largest companies with 2003 revenues of approximately U.S. $7.6 billion and a workforce of 20,600 located in Norway and abroad. Telenor is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (TEL) and NASDAQ (TELN). For more information, visit the Telenor web site at www.telenor.com.

ARINC Incorporated is the world leader in transportation communications and systems engineering. The company develops and operates communications and information processing systems and provides systems engineering and integration solutions to five key industries: airports, aviation, defense, government, and surface transportation. Founded to provide reliable and efficient radio communications for the airlines, ARINC is headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, and operates key regional offices in London and Singapore, with over 3,000 employees worldwide. ARINC is ISO 9001:2000 Certified.