Qantas springs towards in-flight text

Australia's national carrier Qantas has been given the green light to start testing in-flight mobile phone services.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) has given the thumbs-up for a limited evaluation of GSM mobile phones and GPRS devices but only for one commercial aircraft.

According to a Qantas spokesman, the three-month trial will involve a Boeing 767 plying domestic capital cities.

Qantas has decided to limit the pilot to email and text, and disable voice services. The spokesman said global roaming rates for SMS and email will be charged, and added that once the evaluation ends, Qantas will decide if voice calls should be tested. This follows a recent decision by Air France to trial in-flight mobile use.

The Qantas spokesman added: "We're just starting this so we'll see how it goes."

Qantas said passengers wanting to send or receive an SMS will need international roaming activated, and a GSM mobile phone. To send or receive email messages, a GPRS-enabled device would do.

The carrier first flagged plans to conduct the trial in August. AeroMobile, Avionics, Panasonic and Telstra will be part of the exercise.

Lesley Grant, Qantas group general manager of Customer Product and Services, said in a statement: "We have asked our business travellers about the concept and the overwhelming majority felt the service was a good idea, particularly email access.

"This evaluation is the first step towards building a product which will support our customers' business and communication needs into the future."

Acma has granted Qantas a 12-month licence to test mobile telephony on-board. An Acma spokesman said: "Qantas can decide when and how often trials are conducted within this period."

UK-based AeroMobile is leading the way in in-flight mobile phone use. Late last year, Emirates appointed the company to offer talk and text services for one of its Boeing 777s but the service has hit a brick wall due to lack of regulatory approvals.

Earlier this month, federal regulators in the US said it will drop an inquiry into relaxing a ban on in-flight mobile phone usage.

Fran Foo and Scott Mckenzie write for ZDNet Australia