– Inflight roaming with AeroMobile now available on all major UK networks
London, UK | July 24, 2013– AeroMobile, the leading inflight mobile phone operator, has confirmed EE as its latest roaming partner. The move gives EE’s 26 million* customers across the UK the option to use their own mobile phones inflight.
AeroMobile already has over 220 agreements with mobile phone operators around the world including O2, Three and Vodafone in the UK.
Now passengers using any of the UK’s main mobile operators can make calls, text or browse online at 30,000ft, simply by connecting to the AeroMobile network.
So far this year, more than 120,000 UK-based passengers have used the AeroMobile service, sending 175,000 text messages and making 25,000 calls.
The AeroMobile service is active on 150 aircraft across nine airlines including Emirates, Etihad, SAS and Virgin Atlantic. All Virgin Atlantic flights between the US and London Gatwick offer the AeroMobile service, as well as selected flights from Manchester and Heathrow. Many flights from the UK to Dubai with Emirates and Etihad’s services from Heathrow to Abu Dhabi also provide AeroMobile connectivity.
“Adding EE to our portfolio of roaming partners opens up inflight connectivity to even more UK passengers,” says Kevin Rogers, CEO of AeroMobile.
“EE joins the three other big operators in the UK in offering mobile customers the option to use their own phones inflight, and with more and more airlines offering the service, we expect to see increasing numbers of passengers opting to stay connected inflight. In fact, our research shows that 70 per cent of travellers would use their mobile inflight if they had the option.”
“So far this year, more than 7,000 flights have flown to or from the UK with the AeroMobile service onboard, and we’re adding more airlines and more routes every month,” continued Rogers.
Passengers who use the service are billed by their mobile phone operator, and prices vary depending on individual contracts. Prices are typically similar to ‘rest of world’ rates, or in some cases, lower.
Power, Power, Power... it used to be location, location, location, but with the recent airline announcements to expand off-aircraft data services (internet, mobile phone, SMS, etc), Astronics is excited about the complementary nature of these systems with our world leading EmPower® in-seat PED power systems. Most airlines installing new data services on their aircraft are also expanding EmPower® into all seats on their fleet because they realize depleted passenger batteries do not make money.”