Oman Air makes historic in-flight connectivity first flight

Posted on 2 March 2010 in Aircraft Interiors

Oman Air made aviation history today when it became the first airline in the world to offer both mobile and broadband Internet on board its flights.

 With the introduction of cutting-edge technology that offers passengers the convenience of connecting to the Internet and mobile phone from the comfort of their seat, passengers onboard Oman Air’s A330 flights need never be out of touch with the world, even as they fly.
 
Passengers can use their mobile phones at times other than during take-off and landing. As soon as the ‘no mobile’ sign is off, the OnAir name will appear on the mobile screen as the network connection is obtained. Passengers can then receive and make calls, check their voice mail, send and receive text and multimedia messages, and access emails and websites, thus staying in touch during their flight as they would normally do on the ground.
 
When using mobile phones on board, the service will be of a roaming nature, as on a foreign network. Users must then dial the full international numbers. Onboard communications will be charged by the home mobile service provider at international roaming rates, as is the case when one uses a mobile phone abroad.
 
With the Wi-Fi network access, logging onto the Internet is like going online from any public Wi-Fi hotspot. Passengers can then access the Internet, retrieve and send emails from a web-based email account and access webchat to exchange instant messages.
 
The passenger price plan for Internet access on laptops (Wi-Fi) is expected to be US$29.95 for 26MB per flight. Additional usage would be at US$0.006 per KB. For webmail (body copy only) the rate would be US$9.95 per flight and US$0.006 for attachments. For webchat the rate would be US$4.95 for unlimited use, per flight.

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