AeroMobile Flies Into UK

August 12, 2008

Passengers flying into Britain have made the first ever authorised in-flight mobile phone calls on a commercial airliner flying into the UK.

An Emirates Boeing 777 equipped with the AeroMobile system flew into London Heathrow last Thursday, August 7, with passengers able to safely make and receive calls, as well as exchange text messages.

During the seven hour flight from Dubai, about 20 per cent of the passengers on board flight EK005 switched on their mobiles to use the system.

A total of more than 30 calls were made and nearly 100 text messages were sent or received.

AeroMobile chief executive Bjorn-Taale Sandberg said: “After being the world’s first to operate our system on commercial flights, we’re delighted that we are now also first into the UK.”

“The service is proving popular with Emirates customers who clearly appreciate the convenience of being able to stay in contact with friends, family or colleagues on the ground.”

“All the evidence so far is that concerns about potential impact on fellow passengers are groundless. The service has been used considerately and with the minimum of fuss. Text messaging is proving particularly popular, especially because it’s an effective way to communicate during a long-haul flight when you are crossing different time zones.”

The AeroMobile system operates by reducing the signal strength of passengers’ mobiles to an absolute minimum (1000th of usual strength on the ground), ensuring there is no interference to the aircraft’s equipment.

Emirates, the Dubai-based international carrier, has guidelines for the appropriate use of phones on board, including requesting passengers to have their phones switched to “silent” mode during the flights. The airline’s award-winning cabin crew are able to monitor use of the system and are in full control of its use throughout flights.

Patrick Brannelly, Emirates Vice President for passenger communications, said: “Passengers have reacted matter-of-factly, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.”

“We have had no complaints or incidents since the service was introduced in March.  On airliners the cabin noise level is such that you can’t hear people making phone calls, and the call quality has been so good there’s been no need to shout.”

Emirates Airline has the AeroMobile system fitted on 12 of its aircraft which have previously flown to destinations in Asia, the Middle East and continental Europe. Last Thursday’s flight was the first into the UK.

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.

Prior to the launch of the Emirates service, mobile phone use in aircraft has only been allowed in limited, short-term trials which did not support voice calls.

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.  In April 2007, AeroMobile implemented a trial service on domestic flights within Australia. This evaluation project, supporting GSM text messaging and GPRS data services, continued until January 2008 having operated on over 1,000 flights.

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.

More information may be found at www.aeromobile.net

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