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Dubai: Emirates recently became the first airline to introduce inflight mobile phone services on a Boeing aircraft. The technology allows passengers to make calls and send SMS text messages via their mobile phones during flights.
Patrick Brannelly, vice-president, passenger communications and visual services, said the inflight mobile phone technology will offer greater services and additional communications channels to Emirates' passengers.
The Boeing 777-300 carrying the new system is operating on several Emirates routes, including services to Europe and Australia.
Pioneering service
Emirates first installed the technology, which was created by inflight mobile phone technology developer AeroMobile, on one of its Airbus A340-300 aircraft in March - enabling the world's first authorised phone calls on a commercial flight.
Since then, the airline has installed the technology on 10 aircraft, including A340-300, A340-500, A330-200 and Boeing 777 planes. The airline plans to introduce the inflight mobile phone systems to other aircraft.
Most inflight calls usually occur during daytime flights, with minimal usage on night services. The average length of calls is around 2.5 minutes, the airline said.
"There has been overwhelmingly positive feedback since the service launched in March, with between 40 to 60 per cent of passengers switching on their phones on flights where the service is available," he added.
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