Mid-air phone service to get trial run

PEOPLE travelling from Sydney to Dubbo will soon be able to make phone calls mid-air thanks to a new partnership between communication companies Pivotel and Skyfive.

Pivotel senior marketing and communication manager Kieran Blakemore said the service will provide connectivity for Wifi calling services and data calling applications such as Whatsapp, Messenger, Zoom, Teams, Skype or the company’s data calling application PATT (Pivotel App for Talk and Text).

While the airlines offering this service are still under wraps, the select aircrafts will allow calls using Wifi calling as configured by users’ mobile carriers.

“If you can make an international call ordinarily, then you will be able to on an aircraft also,” Mr Blakemore said.

“Data calls via applications will depend on the individual app, some require subscriptions.

“For example, Pivotel’s PATT app requires a subscription, and you can opt for an optional International calling package.”

Skyfive director Zoltan Losteiner said Skyfive is currently building the trial network with Skyfive’s

Australian partner, Pivotel.

The network is expected to “demonstrate the capabilities of the Air-to-ground (A2G) technology”.

“The technology is already covering over 40 countries in Europe and over 300 aircraft are already connected,” Mr Losteiner said.

“Once the network goes live, Australia will be one of the first countries outside of Europe to enjoy this ground-breaking service.

“The solution provides high speed internet access to phones, tablets and computers of the passengers.

“It will be the same or better than what you can do with your home Wi-fi as it is high speed, up to 100Mbps, and low latency connectivity.”

Mr Losteiner said there will be no limitations when it comes to who you can call, with passengers able to make both voice and video calls to anyone in the world.

“With such speed and capacity, passengers will be able to stream video, Netflix, Youtube, make Zoom conference calls and even play online games,” he said.

“We are also in discussion with first responder organisations – using

A2G technology they can increase the efficiency of their work, and connect their medical equipment to the hospital, so specialists (on the ground) can remotely help the patients on the plane.”

Pivotel and Skyfive are currently arranging demonstrations with domestic flights to trial the new technology.

“You can expect lower connectivity costs compared to other solutions based on satellite technology, as the A2G tech has significantly higher speed, more capacity and lower costs so I am sure the passengers will enjoy the benefits,” Mr Losteiner said.