Communications watchdog approves mobile services on airlines, but telcos not impressed

Some telcos believe the licensing arrangements will restrict their ability to actually provide these services at all.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority’s new radio communications licensing arrangements will allow airlines to provide different types of mobile services of their choice.

“The arrangements reflect the ACMA’s commitment to facilitating new and innovative services that provide a benefit to the public and increase consumer choice,” chairman Chris Chapman said in a statement.

“In developing these arrangements, the ACMA was conscious of the need for harmonisation with aviation safety regulations and the protection of terrestrial communications networks from interference.”

The licensing was created in consultation with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to make sure any on-board services wouldn’t pose a threat to aircraft instruments.

“The licensing arrangements will allow airlines to deploy mobile communication services on their aircraft through special on-board systems, should they choose to do so.”

The choice to provide different services rests with each individual airline. They may allow only voice calls, or only data, both or none at all. Chapman says it is up to each company to decide which products they choose to offer.

However, Chapman says calls directly to ground-based networks won’t be allowed. In order to allow on-board mobile use, a new type of technology will need to be installed that restricts connections to ground networks, and instead only connects to satellites.

“The control unit blocks most of the frequencies on which mobile stations operate. This prevents mobile devices from receiving signals from terrestrial network signals once the pico-cell system is turned on,” ACMA says on its website.

The problem with this is that telcos believe this will restrict services to only carrier per aircraft. And so far, only telco Aeromobile is ready to provide the services ACMA is talking about.

However, because of its international nature users would be charged expensive roaming fees while using Aeromobile. V Australia actually signed an agreement with Aeromobile earlier this year to provide wireless voice and data services.

But this isn’t a new problem. Telstra actually flagged this issue in its submission to ACMA several months ago.

“Contrary to the assumption made by the ACMA, it is Telstra’s view that its terrestrial mobile network would support high speed data services on mobile devices operated in flight, and that use of multiple mobile phones aboard aircraft does not cause any material technical issue.”

“The ACMA’s proposed licensing scheme will ultimately act to artificially restrict mobile traffic to one provider aboard each aircraft, denying Australian consumers access so the highly competitive Australian mobile market.”

VHA also flagged some competition concerns in its submission, saying the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission could become involved if necessary.

“We understand that the on-board mobile communications system will support roaming by customers from terrestrial mobile networks with existing GSM-enabled handsets. We are supportive of such an approach.”

“That said, terrestrial mobile network operators are likely to have countervailing bargaining power due to the services’ dependence on third-party authorisation…the latter fact should prevent the emergency of exclusive agreements but many not completely remove the potential for anti-competitive outcomes”.

ACMA says it will consider new technology in the future, including technology that will allow connections to these “terrestrial networks”, but it must first be proven those methods are safe and reliable.