Ryanair launches in-flight mobile phone service

Mark200

19/02/2009 - 10:09:36
Ryanair has today launched its in-flight mobile phone service initially onboard 20 of its aircraft.

This is the first step in fitting Ryanair’s entire fleet of over 170 aircraft to allow all passengers to make and receive mobile calls and texts on all Ryanair flights.

Passengers on Ryanair’s 20 OnAir enabled aircraft can now make and receive voice calls at (non- EU) international roaming rates (€2-3 per minute) text messages (50c+) and email (€1-2) using their mobile phones, BlackBerrys and other smartphones.

These price tariffs are set by each mobile service provider and are subject to each customer’s individual price plan.

The service will initially be available to 02 and Vodafone customers and to customers of more than 50 other mobile phone operators across Europe.

At the launch, OnAir confirmed that it is working with other Irish mobile operators (3 and Meteor) to enable their customers to use the service also.

"Today’s launch by Ryanair and OnAir is the first step to offering in-flight mobile phone services onboard our entire fleet of over 170 aircraft over the next 18 months," said Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary.

"This service will allow passengers to keep in touch with the office, family or friends. We expect customer demand for this service to grow rapidly and hope that customers of all Irish mobile operators will soon be able to call or text home from 30,000 feet to tell loved ones of yet another on time Ryanair flight."

http://breakingnews.ie/business/mhsnsnojidcw/

Bit expensive but sounds good, no doubt once it gets more popular the networks will start charging less.

Unfortunately it'll probably lead to annoying people talking on their phone all the time to whoever they're missing or moaning about Ryanair's terrible service

Tech3

50c a text and calls 2-3 euro per minute :eek: I think ill wait til I land!

Dave!

Michael O'Leary is a genius

Femelade

Ray d'arcy requested someone to let him know if they were going on a ryanair flight, and that he would ring them..
some muppets rang saying they were on their way to amsterdam..they were actually on a stag in tralee..

K-9

Femmy wrote: »

Ray d'arcy requested someone to let him know if they were going on a ryanair flight, and that he would ring them..
some muppets rang saying they were on their way to amsterdam..they were actually on a stag in tralee..

Deer, deer.

AnonoBoy

Much like Ryanair's "luxury hot chocolate" I think I'll give this a miss.

I never have anything that important to say that can't wait until I'm on the ground.

Although I do look forward to the first AH post from a Ryanair flight! Something high brow no doubt.

Although it would be brilliant to have a live update from The Citizen tackling scum at 30,000 feet!

BaconZombie

Boards & p0rn browsing while on a flight.....

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Hang on - the only reason I'm flying with Ryanair in the first place is to SAVE money!

Sam Vimes

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

Hang on - the only reason I'm flying with Ryanair in the first place is to SAVE money!

speaking of which, i was recently getting a ryanair flight and when checking in they said my bag was 1kg over weight to bring as hand luggage. of course the only reason it was over weight is because they only allow you to bring one bag on so i had to put my laptop bag into my main bag which only weighed a few kg itself.

The woman said i'd have to pay €30 to check it in so instead i went to the back of the queue, took out and carried my book, put on 5 t shirts and got the bag re weighed. 9.7kg

Quint

Sure a roaming text from england is 50cent. You're not forced to use this service, but it's dead handy if you do actually need it.
Ryanair have some bad policies, but this is actually great imho

syklops

Sam Vimes wrote: »

speaking of which, i was recently getting a ryanair flight and when checking in they said my bag was 1kg over weight to bring as hand luggage. of course the only reason it was over weight is because they only allow you to bring one bag on so i had to put my laptop bag into my main bag which only weighed a few kg itself.

The woman said i'd have to pay €30 to check it in so instead i went to the back of the queue, took out and carried my book, put on 5 t shirts and got the bag re weighed. 9.7kg

Why didnt you just take out the laptop??

Laptops are considered extra items. Like handbags.

homerun_homer

Mark200 wrote: »

http://breakingnews.ie/business/mhsnsnojidcw/

Bit expensive but sounds good, no doubt once it gets more popular the networks will start charging less.

Yeas, just like the Networks have greatly reduced the Roaming charges:rolleyes: Dream on.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Much like Ryanair's "luxury hot chocolate" I think I'll give this a miss.

I never have anything that important to say that can't wait until I'm on the ground.

Although I do look forward to the first AH post from a Ryanair flight! Something high brow no doubt.

Although it would be brilliant to have a live update from The Citizen tackling scum at 30,000 feet!

Terrorists...

Mark200

homerun_homer wrote: »

Yeas, just like the Networks have greatly reduced the Roaming charges:rolleyes: Dream on.

They have.

Although the EU made them, but nonetheless they have.

ibarelycare

Now you won't have to reach the terminal before ringing Joe Duffy to complain about Ryanair.

faceman

Ive been dreading this day for many years. Its the one public space that was mobile phone and ringtone free.

Its a sad day.

Quint

faceman wrote: »

Ive been dreading this day for many years. Its the one public space that was mobile phone and ringtone free.

Its a sad day.

Good point. God help us! I don't get public transport often, but it's a pain in the hole listening to about 20 ****e ringtones every minute

Sam Vimes

syklops wrote: »

Why didnt you just take out the laptop??

Laptops are considered extra items. Like handbags.

Ryanair Cabin Baggage Restrictions wrote:

You are shortly booked to travel with Ryanair (your flight information is detailed below).
...
...
•PLEASE NOTE THAT ONLY ONE ITEM OF CABIN BAGGAGE PER PASSENGER (excluding infants) WITH A MAXIMUM WEIGHT OF 10KG AND DIMENSIONS OF 55CM X 40CM X 20CM - http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/faqs.php?sect=bag&quest=cabinbaggageallowance

•IMPORTANT– YOUR HANDBAG, BRIEFCASE, LAPTOP ETC. MUST BE CARRIED WITHIN YOUR 1 PERMITTED PIECE OF CABIN BAGGAGE.

not on ryanair they're not. anything to force you to check it in and give them €30 :rolleyes:

one large bag would be less space efficient in the overhead compartment than two smaller ones so the rule is obviously just to force people to pay more

homerun_homer

Mark200 wrote: »

They have.

Although the EU made them, but nonetheless they have.

No one told my network (O2). I had €30 wasted while away in Glasgow for a few days. I took/made no calls. Texted those who texted me and people I met over there, couldn't believe how much it cost.

Sam Vimes

homerun_homer wrote: »

No one told my network (O2). I had €30 wasted while away in Glasgow for a few days. I took/made no calls. Texted those who texted me and people I met over there, couldn't believe how much it cost.

if you cancelled calls and sent people to voicemail you would have paid for a roaming divert and so paid for the call at roaming rates. maybe that's why it cost so much?

homerun_homer

Sam Vimes wrote: »

if you cancelled calls and sent people to voicemail you would have paid for a roaming divert and so paid for the call at roaming rates. maybe that's why it cost so much?

Nope, no one called me the whole time. Everyone texts.

Sam Vimes

homerun_homer wrote: »

Nope, no one called me the whole time. Everyone texts.

at 29c a text i suppose it'd only take 103 texts to get to €30

take a look at the program in my sig. 2c texts pretty much anywhere

Mark200

homerun_homer wrote: »

No one told my network (O2). I had €30 wasted while away in Glasgow for a few days. I took/made no calls. Texted those who texted me and people I met over there, couldn't believe how much it cost.

They've been reduced by over 25% in the last 7 months.....

http://www.o2online.ie/wps/wcm/connect/O2/About+O2/Press/2008/August/O2+reduces+EU+roaming+rates

A text message is 30c, so you must have sent 100 text messages or else you did your maths wrong.

http://www.o2online.ie/wps/wcm/connect/O2/Home/Explore+Services/Services/Travelling+Abroad/Tariff+Information/United+Kingdom/speakeasy

Berty

Oh The Irony

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h97/quirke/Ryanair.jpg

homerun_homer

I'm not that mad a texter, I'm on holidays - not in the mood to be texting all the time but you never know. I suppose it can all add up. Still very expensive though.

_feedback_

I was on a flight from London to Dublin this afternoon and used my phone. The only problem was the delays hearing the person on the other end of the voice call and my text was delivered to a person that was 50 miles away from the number i sent it to.

Mark200

elviscostello wrote: »

I was on a flight from London to Dublin this afternoon and used my phone. The only problem was the delays hearing the person on the other end of the voice call and my text was delivered to a person that was 50 miles away from the number i sent it to.

Huh what do you mean by the last part?

Mossy Monk

Cannot wait.

"hello. hello. HELLO!!!"
"I am on dairplane"
"WHAT, I CANNOT HEAR YOU, MY EARS POPPED"
"WHAT????"

magick

great:rolleyes:


"da plane is crashin................NO I SAID THE PLANE IS CRASHIN!"

auditek923

pity they did not have this technology on sept 11,2001 ...oh wait a minute,there was calls made from planes that day. but if the tech is only out now,how did it happen back then.surely the american govt did not lie about those phone calls ......mmm

Mark200

auditek923 wrote: »

pity they did not have this technology on sept 11,2001 ...oh wait a minute,there was calls made from planes that day. but if the tech is only out now,how did it happen back then.surely the american govt did not lie about those phone calls ......mmm

As far as I know, the calls were made from airplane phones in first class, not from mobiles.

auditek923

Mark200 wrote: »

As far as I know, the calls were made from airplane phones in first class, not from mobiles.

then you know wrong

Bottle_of_Smoke

Berty wrote: »

Oh The Irony

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h97/quirke/Ryanair.jpg

Marvellous! Everyone needs to click that link

Mark200

auditek923 wrote: »

then you know wrong

Jeez relax like. The topic is "Ryanair launches in-flight mobile phone service"....not "NEW TECHNOLOGY THAT HAS NEVER BEEN THOUGHT OF OR USED BEFORE!!!!!!"

robinph

Mark200 wrote: »

As far as I know, the calls were made from airplane phones in first class, not from mobiles.

Nope.

Was regular mobiles they were using, just mobile networks don't really like to have hundreds of mobiles switching from one cell tower to the next every minute as the plane cruises along, or to have your phone attempting to connect to multiple ones all at the same time from 30,000ft. So with that and the airlines wanting to charge for their expensive satellite phone calls they all come up with some phantom theories about mobiles interfering with the flight deck systems.

ctrl-alt-delete

syklops wrote: »

Why didnt you just take out the laptop??

Laptops are considered extra items. Like handbags.

It depends who you get,

but one item of hand baggage is one item,

and there are people who will pull you up on it, i've seen it happen, especially seems as though they seem to be clamping down.

OPENROAD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NciO7AEqKYE&feature=related