( One of the last telephone-free environm...)'Hi, can You Hear Me? I'm at 30,000 Feet',Health

One of the last telephone-free environments on the planet, the airplane, is about to be connected, allowing travellers to make mobile phone calls at high altitude. Requests to switch off cell phones and fasten seatbelts are a familiar part of the takeoff routine for airline passengers, but a European company has found a way to make dialling safe and link up people from above the clouds.

"Cabin connectivity is here and GSM phone use is both a technical and commercial reality," chief commercial officer of OnAir, Graham Lake, told AFP at the Paris Air Show this week. His company, a joint venture between European plane maker Airbus and airline IT group Sita, received a green light from the European Aviation Safety Agency on Monday to begin fitting equipment to commercial jets.

The technology is to be operated by an Air France plane for the first time in September this year and will then roll out across the world, with low-cost operators Ireland-based Ryanair and Malaysia's AirAsia some of the biggest clients. "It's the first time anywhere in the world that a system has been authorised and confirmed for the safe operation of phones and BlackBerry-type devices on aircraft," Lake said.

The expansion timetable means European consumers will be the first to be able to use the technology with Air France, Ryanair, British low-cost BMI and Portugal's TAP. Approval from a handful of national telecommunication regulators are the final hurdles, Lake said. "What we are confident of now is that we'll have pan-European approval to operate before the end of 2007," he added.

Some companies in SouthEast Asia and the Middle East are expected to begin installing the OnAir equipment in 2008, but the more complicated markets of Japan and the United States will have to wait until 2009. AirAsia, which flies throughout SouthEast Asia and is planning to launch longhaul services, is an early adopter and has signed a deal with OnAir to equip
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