In-flight Internet access... and mobile phones too?

I read a business article in the Economist (‘Mobile Phones on planes – Your call’) during the Christmas holidays about the current developments in passenger in-flight systems, specifically the provision of Internet data access and the potential to support mobile (cell) phone voice calls during flight.

The article reports on trials of a Wi-Fi
data service by JetBlue and Quantas, and a forthcoming mobile phone
voice call trial by Air France (which follows on from the mobile phone
SMS text messaging described in this Air France press release);
it then goes on to discuss the social impact and acceptability of
Internet data access and mobile voice calls during flight, which makes
interesting reading.

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