New Ryanair Roaming Deal

[andy]

Ryanair signs OnAir deal for in-flight mobiles

http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/0830/ryanair.html

interesting - "Its ground network will be provided by Monaco Telecom."

[moua]

Great news

I just hope it will be the "europe" zone for us (and not the amazing price of satellite zone).

"Do you wondering where i'm calling from ?"
However, with the ambiant sound in a 737, if you don't use sms, you should speak loudly, wich can be annoying for others.


But is it compatible with new security procedures ?
http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/notices.php...e=060822-ASP-EN

[AndreA]

Originally Posted by moua

But is it compatible with new security procedures ?
http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/notices.php...e=060822-ASP-EN

So a new +377 simcard while we're Waiting for +378 :whistle:

[petkow]

Just reviving this very old thread! It seems Ryanair have actually now (finally) lanched on around 20 aircraft (mainly Dublin based ones!)
Ryanair.com - News : Launch of Europe’s 1st Fleet Wide Inflight Mobile Phone Service

Has anyone been on one yet? Any reports as to how it works/network it uses. Surely there will be cheaper ways to use it than the prices mentioned in that article!

Incidentally.. http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/roa_xaoa.shtml reports that there aren't that many roaming agreements yet. e.g. For UK, only o2 customers can use the service so far (also mentioned on the Ryanair website). German users only o2 and T-Mobile. For us here in Spain: absolutely none so far... so I will stick with my o2 UK! Not that I think I will ever see reason to use it other than a few SMS's.

[Effendi]

I flew with Ryanair yesterday but no inflight roaming available. It's probably only for planes based in Dublin by now.

[DRNewcomb]

One of those services which I would use mostly for incoming texts. They say e-mails are "(€1-€2)" but I wonder what that translates to as a GPRS roaming rate? Could be that smsBug & FishText could still be a bargain.

[VladS]

The FAQ on the OnAir web site states they expect the final cost of a 100kb data session to cost between €1.00 and €1.50. I wonder what the data billing granularity is.

http://www.onair.aero/admin/fil/Freq...%20Ryanair.pdf

[petkow]

Some extracts from a related blog entry I wrote about the subject:

To be honest I think "low cost" airline and "high cost" on-board connectivity are rather incompatible. This is especially componded considering so many Ryanair flights are so short in duration so that there is little need for people to keep in touch, unless of course its Ryanairs own fault and you're late.

A bit of simple maths shows it actually costs almost 6 times more to get on your phone the next time you fly Ryanair than to just be on the plane! The average price of a Ryanair flight is now apparantly just €34 (inclusive of all taxes and charges). For the average Ryanair flights that is only around €0.5/min! At €3/min your telephone call is therefore ridiculously expensive! But then again, so is €4.50 for a tiny can of beer or €3 for a cup of coffee!

I was on a domestic Spanish Ryanair flight the other day, where the crew sold just 1 packet of crisps, 2 Coca Colas and a single cup of coffee! Something makes me think that if they were to half the prices of these they would sell at least twenty times as much, and make some decent profit! At half price, these would be remotely close to what you pay for drinks even at Spanish airport terminals. Spanish people happily splurge out on drinks and snacks but there is a limit to how much they are prepared to get ripped off by!

Installing the femtocells onto this set of 20 aircraft apparantly is just a trial! According to their earlier press release, the trial is already two years past schedule! Apparantly it costs a 6 figure sum per aircraft to install the kit. To be honest, I doubt Mr. O’Leary is pocketing the bill, as he has no doubt driven one of his usual hard bargains and passed the buck entirely onto OnAir who are after all conducting one of their numerous "trials". They have two more guinea pigs with TAP and BMI but are still patiently waiting for a serious fleetwide roll out customer!

I really wonder how well it will all go. Mr. O'Leary quickly gets cold feet and may pull out as soon as he realises this is not paying back as quickly as anticipated. Then again, I could be completely wrong.

[petkow]

In the last few days OnAir have pulled out of their agreement with Ryanair. The airline is now looking for a new partner for the fleet-wide launch.
News : Ryanair to move to new in-flight communications partner

I have to say, on the few occasions I was flying on a compatible aircraft I enjoyed this service while it lasted. At least it was useful for free incoming text-alerts at 40,000 feet! However, perhaps that is precisely the problem. I never saw anybody actually make or take a call!

[bylo]

Meanwhile Ryanair has found yet another way to, um, take the piss out their passengers. Unfortunately those who, er, don't have a pot to piss in are going to be really uncomfortable. Airline to charge for use of toilets