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Story URL: http://networks.silicon.com/mobile/0,39024665,39161290,00.htm

Ever had text on an airplane?
Like a Virgin Atlantic passenger

By Jo Best

Published: Wednesday 09 August 2006

Virgin Atlantic has announced travellers of a curious nature will be able to engage both their minds and their thumbs with a new text service.

Passengers crossing the pond will soon be able to contact AQA - a text-back service that claims to be able to answer any question within 160 characters.

Virgin Atlantic's customers can send their brain teasers to AQA via the seat-back TV systems, which will forward their queries to the company on land and deliver an answer once it has solved the airborne riddle.

Using the service from a mobile on terra firma costs £1 but getting pertinent puzzlers such as 'what is the chance of my plane crashing?' and 'chicken or beef?' solved whilst mile high will cost $4.50. The price is based on Virgin's standard texting price of $2.50 to send a text and $2 to receive one.

AQA has already answered three million questions from bemused punters to date and Virgin is hoping bored travellers will boost that tally, as they query points about their destination, connection times, transfers and delays.

Like the airline's normal voice and data communications, the SMS enquiries will be sent over satellite.

According to Dave Tharp, senior manager of development and logistics, cellular connection wasn't an option. "We didn't go for cellular because of the coverage - we need coverage over oceans, over the poles. We wanted everyone to be able to use the service so we didn't want to install new infrastructure," he told silicon.com.

Tharp added the airline is keeping "a watching brief" on introducing cellular connectivity - both on the technology and social impact.