…and the walls came tumbling down. The threat of in-flight calling has been looming for quite some time now, but we have yet to see anything implemented on a large enough scale to make us worried. That all appears to be changing. Air France has just announced that they have equipped their first Airbus A318 with a fully functional in-flight calling system. The network is set to enter a 6-month trial period and frankly we couldn’t be more annoyed. The first three months will be limited to SMS and email use, but expect full-fledged calling by the time the last three months roll around. The system is being co-sponsored by OnAir, which has negotiated a deal with Orange, Bouyges Telecom, and SFR that will allow customers to call home for a mere $2.50/minute. At that price, we would gladly pay anyone sitting next to us at least $3/minute to keep their mouths shut.
