Fliers may soon get on-board Internet in India

New Delhi, Aug 25 (PTI) Air passengers may be able to useInternet on-board and even make phone calls, beginning asearly as next month, with security issues being sorted out forallowing use of Wi-Fi facility in the Indian airspace. The facility will be available for domestic as well asforeign carriers flying in Indian skies, for which thetechnical and operational modalities are in the advanced stageof finalisation, officials said. Globally, many airlines are already offering Wi-Fi forpassengers, but they currently have to switch off the facilitywhen they enter the Indian airspace. Carriers will have the option to charge for the servicethough some of them can offer free usage up to a certainlimit or in some specific flying classes. Availability of Wi-Fi is also expected to provide localairlines with an additional source of revenues amid stiffcompetition in the Indian aviation market, which has beenwitnessing one of the highest passenger traffic growth ratesin the world. While the Civil Aviation Ministry has been pursuing theproposal of permitting use of Wi-Fi in flights on-board for"quite some time", various security issues were holding up afinal decision on the matter. Indicating that "good news" is likely in coming days,Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey last night said theministries of Civil Aviation, Telecommunications and HomeAffairs have been working on allowing Wi-Fi use in flights. "There is fairly a good chance that in 10 days,permission will be given to operate Wi-Fi in the Indianairspace," Choubey said, adding that Cabinet nod might not berequired for allowing Wi-Fi facility on-board. On whether passengers will also be permitted to makephone calls, he indicated that it should be there. "…if data is going to be allowed, it should be possibleto make calls as well. We expect that to happen as well," hesaid. Currently, Wi-Fi services and phone calls are not allowedon flights flying over the Indian airspace. About the security issues being discussed, he said theimportant thing is about monitoring "data and voicetransmission" by the security agencies. MORE PTI RAM BJARD