William Payne <wpayne@digi.uucp> (01/05/90)
A while ago I asked for any info on GTE's AirPhone service after using
it during a Thanksgiving flight. Lo and behold the following article
showed up. I reproduce it below w/o permission.
From Electronic Engineering Times; Issue 571; January 1, 1990, page 8.
AirPhone Creator Proposes Flight FAX
Washington- Jack Goeken, the man who started the GTE AirPhone service
in 1976 and thus ensured that no one could get away from it all, has
another plan up his sleeve for making flight time more productive. His
new company, In-Flight Phone Co., has petitioned the [FCC] to allow
air travelers to send facsimiles from air to ground, check on flight
schedules and seat availability and transmit data from portable
computers, all without leaving their seats.
-Cheaper than AirPhone-
The proposed services, designed to be available at passenger seat
backs, would cost less than present AirPhone charges, which are about
$4 for the first minute and $2 per each additional minute. In-Flight
estimates that computer data - requiring less bandwidth than a voice
channel - could be transmitted for $1 or less per minute.
Goeken expects the new service's power to permit air travelers on
delayed flights to check flight-connection alternatives while still
airbound will make the system attractive to customers and airlines
alike.
AirPhone - which permits travelers to make, but not receive,
in-flight calls - is the only chartered air telephone carrier at
present, a situation which Goeken plans to remedy with his own VHF
two-way systems in 1990, pending FCC approval.