NEW
DELHI: Whenever one board an aircraft to fly in India or overfly
the country an iron curtain
prohibits flyers in Indian airspace from enjoying Wi-Fi connectivity.
While international flyers can log on to the net as soon as they are out
of Indian airspace.
"We were shown a real time presentation of
aircraft in air using Wi-Fi and/or mobile connectivity. All planes over
India were shown in red, meaning they had neither of these two
connections. We were told that India does not allow these two things in
air and so even planes of foreign airlines equipped with Wi-Fi and/or
mobile connectivity have to switch their systems off, while flying over
the country," said a senior AirIndia official. The airline was told that some
private and foreign airlines had in the past sought permission to use
Wi-Fi over Indian airspace but were not given the same.
Furtherhe said, "We are going to request
the government to lift the ban on Wi-Fi in air and soon start a formal
process with both the home and telecom ministry. Such a ban does not
make sense when advanced countries actually take pride in ensuring
flyers over their airspace remain connected all the time. Being a
government company, we hope to get this ban lifted on our request.
However, that process may take time and out plan of having internet in
air is now delayed till that happens," said an official.
More than 500 airliners are flying around the U.S. with wireless
Internet access up and running, but airlines are finding that the
technology that they hope will bring new revenues may be more like
in-flight meals: People gobbled up food when it was free, but they find
it a lot less appetizing when they have to pay.
Another potential obstacle: lack of power ports on planes. Many road
warriors already carry extra batteries for their computers and battery
life has been getting longer. But connecting wirelessly can drain power,
and airlines have been slow to retrofit power outlets into aircraft.
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