British Airways to allow cell phone service on flights

Tis’ true, sir. Starting in the fall, BA will allow passengers on business-only flights from the Square Mile to JFK to use data services on their mobile. Passengers will not be allowed to make phone calls, initially, but BA will assess the successfulness of allowing passengers to send and receive text messages and e-mails first. They’re actually going to let the passengers decide whether or not phone calls will be permitted.

If this is going to be a business class-only flight, can’t they just retrofit some phone booths in the back for these blokes? No word on pricing, yet.

In case you didn’t know, Emirates has been offering the same service with voice calls since last March. Not sure how well it’s doing considering the price, £2/minute. Ryanair will offer the Full Monty on at least 10 of its planes if and when the regulators give it the OK.

Air France, Qantas, TAP Air Portugal, Kingfisher, Air Asia, Oman Air and Royal Jordanian are other airlines who have already begun testing or will test the service.

Telegraph via MobileBurn