New Delhi: Air travellers in India could in the coming months surf the web while flying, with the government finally warming up to the idea of WiFi--based Internet connections on flights, meeting a longstanding demand of both airlines and passengers.
A senior civil aviation ministry official said his ministry has approached the department of telecommunications (DoT) with the proposal and will make a formal announcement soon. "The DoT has already said (informally) the proposal is possible to implement," he said, asking not to be named.
DoT allots spectrum, or airwaves, capacity to operators to provide telecom and broadband services. In India, only foreign airlines such as Emirates, Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines offer Internet connectivity on international flights.
Sanjiv Kapoor, COO of budget airline SpiceJet, said several airlines had expressed interest in the proposal.
"It is a welcome proposal, it is allowed in many other places of the world. In the US these days, it is rare to be on a flight that does not have Wi-Fi," he said.
28/03/15 Binoy Prabhakar/Economic Times
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A senior civil aviation ministry official said his ministry has approached the department of telecommunications (DoT) with the proposal and will make a formal announcement soon. "The DoT has already said (informally) the proposal is possible to implement," he said, asking not to be named.
DoT allots spectrum, or airwaves, capacity to operators to provide telecom and broadband services. In India, only foreign airlines such as Emirates, Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines offer Internet connectivity on international flights.
Sanjiv Kapoor, COO of budget airline SpiceJet, said several airlines had expressed interest in the proposal.
"It is a welcome proposal, it is allowed in many other places of the world. In the US these days, it is rare to be on a flight that does not have Wi-Fi," he said.
28/03/15 Binoy Prabhakar/Economic Times
