Ryanair reveals in-flight mobile services pricing

Makes their sarnies look like good value

Ryanair reveals in-flight mobile services pricing View more images

20 February 2009 16:19 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Ryanair has officially launched its in-flight mobile phone service on board 20 of its primarily Dublin-based aircraft.

The first step in fitting Ryanair's entire fleet with mini mobile phone masts, the company has now revealed pricing for the services.

Passengers on Ryanair’s "OnAir" enabled aircraft can now make and receive voice calls at non-EU international roaming rates of around 2 to 3 euros per minute.

Converted to sterling this means the price for calls is between £1.77 and £2.65 a minute.

Text messages will cost a minimum of 50 euro cents and and sending an email via a BlackBerry or other smartphone will set flyers back between 1 and 2 euros.

Ryanair says these price tariffs are set by each mobile service provider and are subject to each customer's individual price plan.

Flyers will now see a "Phone Use Permitted" sign on the OnAir aircraft and when the sign lights up green, will be permitted to turn their mobile device on.

The service will initially be available to O2 and Vodafone customers, with more operators due to be added soon.

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Comments

  • If this announcement represents the start of a new trend, it could herald a rich seam of new, potentially lucrative service opportunities for both mobile operators and airline carriers. Though the prospect of passengers making voice calls on-board will be an irritation to many, email, SMS and internet browsing in the air could become very popular.

    In tapping into "airline roaming", mobile operators will be extending their well established roaming plans, however it will be vital that they translate these premium services into straightforward customer offerings. Customers are not concerned by the underlying technology, they just want a high-quality service and bills that are clear and easy to understand.

    In particular, operators need to keep pricing transparent so users always know how much they are spending without the risk of overspend or so-called “bill shock” at the end of the month. Real-time charging systems and the ability for users to determine their own service-level spending controls will be an essential tool for operators looking to benefit from this new service.     Posted by Dominic Smith, marketing director, Cerillion Technologies, UK

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