Roaming Fees May Apply...

riding the waves of recent deals between handset/network equipment manufacturers and aircraft manufacturers, siemens and airbus have cut a deal where siemens will provide the necessary equipment to enable gsm network phone use on board airbus aircrafts.

siemens will supply systems based on the network model of a single cell point built into the aircraft which will route calls through nearby satellites in order to connect to terrestrial networks.

while the US seems to be pushing back on the enablement of in-flight voice calls, it looks like european markets may prevail and launch full phone services for in-flight use before we see it in the united states.

interesting article from today's register about revelations entertainment" teaming up with intel to develop an online system to deliver films over the internet simultaneously as the films are in theatres. this development is one of the many programs that are in the works to counter piracy of first run films. two things are interesting about this news, the first, is that there is a strong belief that first run film piracy is fueled by people's displeasure with actually going to a theatre and that piracy is part of the "convenience process." the second insight is the possibility that the future of film distribution could follow in the footsteps of online gaming where networked consoles deliver online/downloadable content.

users of the 1800 band of GSM phone service can rejoice if they are flying on german based airlines. the german ministry of transport plans to lift the current ban on inflight talk and data use sometime next year. more info can be found here.