So our digitoon for the week turned out to be quite topical: Bharti Airtel has inked a deal with AeroMobile, a UK based in-flight solutions company owned by Telenor ASA and ARINC Inc, to provide mobile telephony on international flights to its subscribers. Aeromobile also has a partnership with Malaysian operator Maxis. Cost At Rs. 188 per minute for outgoing and Rs. 24 per minute incoming, you can expect the famous Indian missed call practice to become commonplace while in the air too. SMS' will be charged at Rs. 41 for outgoing, and incoming SMS' will be free, according to PTI. Coverage & Regulation AeroMobile has partnerships with Malaysia Airlines, Emirates, Turkish Airlines and Qantas. In February this year, AeroMobile got its 100,000th in-flight mobile user. According to PTI, the service will not be available over Indian air space, since regulatory approval has not been received. Has Kingfisher Airlines received an for approval for Internet and Mobile services in-flight? It's been a year and a half since the company tied up with OnAir. Kingfisher had applied to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for in-flight mobile services in August last year. Now that the government has changed, there is hope that at least some decisions will be taken. This must be quite a task for a company like Aeromobile - not just having to contend with the technological issues with different aircrafts, but creating an ecosystem which requires approval and participation from Airlines, Telecom Operators, and Telecom and Aviation government departments…
