Leading inflight mobile phone operator AeroMobile has today welcomed the move by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that may lead to a removal of the ban on using mobile devices onboard U.S aircraft. 

In response to yesterday's meeting, where a preliminary vote opened a period for public comment, AeroMobile CEO Kevin Rogers said that the FCC's move would bring the U.S. in line with the rest of the world and give U.S. airlines the option to provide the same service as their international competitors. 

"I'm pleased to see that common sense prevailed yesterday. There is no reason to maintain a ruling that is no longer relevant - the technology used to provide inflight GSM services is proven, and has been operational across Europe, Asia and the Middle East for more than five years." said Rogers.

"We have hundreds of connected flights flying to and from the U.S. every day, but at the moment the service has to be switched off when we reach U.S. airspace. We know there is demand for this service from U.S. travellers - last month a quarter of the people using the service on our transatlantic routes connected from U.S. mobile networks," continued Rogers.

AeroMobile's inflight mobile service is active on more than 170 aircraft across nine airlines including Emirates, Etihad, SAS, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus and Virgin Atlantic. The operator has over 240 agreements with mobile phone operators around the world including AT&T and T Mobile in the United States.

"We look forward to working with the FCC over the coming months and will be demonstrating the value of the service to both customers and airlines, based on our experience," said Rogers.

"I'm hopeful that sensible discussions can now take place about the practicalities of operating this service in the U.S. Ultimately, it will be up to individual airlines to decide on the right inflight mobile connectivity package for their passengers, whether this is SMS only or the full service, including voice and data," continued Rogers. 

-ENDS-

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About AeroMobile
AeroMobile Communications Limited is a UK-based GSM service provider for the aviation industry.  AeroMobile provides world class, proven, technology and services that enable airline passengers to use their own mobile phones for voice, texting and mobile data whilst inflight.

As part of the Panasonic Group's Global Communication Suite, AeroMobile's services are available for installation either at the point of aircraft manufacture (line fit) or on aircraft in service (retrofit) across both Airbus and Boeing aircraft. 

Since 2008, over 20 million passengers have connected to the AeroMobile network inflight.

The AeroMobile service is currently available across nine airlines, including Emirates, Etihad and Virgin Atlantic, with the number expected to double in the next 12 months.

For more information on AeroMobile, please go to www.aeromobile.net.

Follow us on Twitter @AeroMobile