Qantas has been given permission to start testing in-flight mobile phone use, though for now usage will be restricted to data only and on just one aircraft.

According to CNet (http://news.com.com/2110-1039_3-6177455.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news), lucky passengers on the selected Boeing 767, flying between Australian cities over the next three months, will be able to send and receive 160-character missives as well as access GPRS services for email and the like. They'll need to have international roaming enabled, as the aircraft will be operating as a roamed-to network (with associated cost).

Customers won't be able to make voice calls on the service, which will be a relief for their neighbours. Connections are routed from the plane over a satellite connection, which leads to the inevitable latency that few phone users are familiar with these days. ®

Related stories

• NASA seeks inflight comms for sky marshals (23 July 2007)

  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/23/hello_youre_through_to_the_sky_marshal/

• Latent problems with people, not networks (10 May 2007)

  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/10/latent_humans/

• Defective automatic trousers hurl pilot from plane (26 April 2007)

  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/26/wallace_joins_the_swedish_airforce/

• Germany moots higher EU roaming caps (24 April 2007)

  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/24/roaming/

• Qantas jet almost rammed by sky-hog glider pilot (13 April 2007)

  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/13/who_was_the_mystery_birdman/

• IPPR wants health warnings for planes (5 April 2007)

  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/05/plane_health/

• Phones on a Plane: FCC still says no (4 April 2007)

  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/04/fcc_continues_cellphone_aircraft_ban/

• Airbus falls to first ever loss (9 March 2007)

  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/09/airbus_first_loss/