RIYADH, 29 March 2008 — Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) has become the first Saudi mobile operator to launch in-flight calls aboard select airlines, the company said in a statement yesterday. Mobily customers can now call and text message loved ones, and business associates as they travel aboard select Emirates Airline flights, through a landmark agreement with AeroMobile, the specialized aviation mobile operator.
According to the terms of the agreement, Mobily can make calls, send SMS text messages and will also soon be able to connect to the Internet via GPRS by roaming through AeroMobile’s mobile network.
“The agreement with AeroMobile has been in the making for quite some time. We have known about AeroMobile for a year now and that it was readying its technology for commercial use. We contacted AeroMobile, and they gave us their full support,” said Abdulaziz Al-Tamami, chief operations officer of Mobily.
“We are proud at Mobily to be the first company in the Kingdom to provide such a service to our subscribers. With it our customers can stay in touch regardless of where they are, on the ground or in the air,” he added.
Last week, Mobily was one of the first telecom operators to ran a trial of it services on Emirates Airline flight EK751 heading from Dubai in the UAE to Casablanca in Morocco. This trip was the first international flight in the world to fly commercially with this unique telephone roaming service In addition to allowing users to make voice calls and SMS text messages, AeroMobile supports all basic GSM services like caller ID, call waiting with support of GPRS, and other IP based services like BlackBerry and push mail coming quickly.
AeroMobile itself has run exhaustive trials of the service over the past few years and has received approvals from aviation and telecommunications authorities.
The AeroMobile system is so designed that it does not affect any other aircraft systems or sub systems.
