Virgin Atlantic teams up with Telenor’s Aeromobile to offer in-flight calls to passengers on New York to London flights. Now you can stay connected even in-flight!

Picture this: you just boarded a plane and are about to take off. Just a few minutes before take off you remember something important and have to call or text it now because you’ll be out of pocket for the next eight hours. Wouldn’t it be amazing to use your smartphone without restraint?  Well if you are a Virgin Atlantic passenger, there’s good news in store for you. Apart from good food and Wi-Fi on flight, Virgin Atlantic will also offer cell phone service for making voice calls. Never worry about a last minute message again –this new service will be beneficial for business and non-business class customers alike!

Cell phone service on flights is still banned in the US (over terrorism concerns), yet Virgin Atlantic will be providing cell phone service in more than ten flights by the end of 2012 (service will be limited once within 250 miles of U.S. Airspace). This service will currently be available on the flights between the cities New York and London (i.e. on the A330 Airbus planes) and will include voice calls, text messaging, and data messaging (internet surfing and email).

The mobile service will be powered by the Telenor’s AeroMobile, who have designed a phone network o route calls to and from the plane satellites on the ground.

Virgin’s in-flight cell phone service may sound appealing but the costs involved are very high –passenger will be charged $1.20 per minute (the intention is that users will not be making long calls). Only six passengers will be able to use this service at any given time and a calls will not be available while a flight is taking off or landing or if the flight is near U.S. Airspace. But even with these limitations, cell service in flight will certainly change the way we communicate; and hopefully make it more convenient!