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When traveling in Europe, one no longer has to wait until the plane lands to be able to check his or her calls or Sms. Passengers of air france A318 flying within Europe can now use their mobile phones and even check their E-mails using their own laptops within the 6-month trial period of the Mobile OnAir.

Passengers on-board Air France's A318 will fill in a 20 question survey regarding the mobile services. Air France would then appraise these to determine if they would launch mobile services in all their flights.

Here is how it works:

Mobile phones connect to a miniature cellular network installed inside this aircraft.

A modem transmits data and calls to a satellite that routes them to a ground station. Data and calls are then routed to the passenger's usual telephone network. This network is located inside the aircraft. Passengers' mobile phones only emit at minimum power, which does not risk harming interference with aircraft avionics or ground telecoms network.

. Phones are used just like on the ground. To make a call on board the aircraft, passengers simply dial the international prefix (+) or 00 + country code + full number (without the 0).

. The cost of data exchanges are invoiced by the customers' telephone operator and are comparable to those used for normal international mobile phone calls.

Quantas is also offering a similar service but is only limited to domestic flights.

via Airline Travel News