In-flight phone service exists on many flights already, but the associated high cost ($4 per minute payphones on most US airlines) has limited its usages among airline passengers. However, the experience of calling your loved ones from 40,000 feet about the ground is likely to get more affordable very soon.An FCC frequency auction is underway that could allow one to make phones calls using VoIP. Two winners are expected to emerge from the auction. Airfone executives have indicated that Internet service could begin in about a year if it wins some bandwidth.
Although many frequent flyers and airline attendants favor a ban on the phone chatter, Connexion by Boeing, whose Internet service is already offered on nearly 200 international flights a day, notes that there have been no complaints of in-cabin incidents about the technology. The Connexion service is regularly used by passengers to make VoIP calls.
VoIP enabled inflight phones in flight would mean the death of the built-in aircraft phones that never proved very profitable for the airlines. Travelers avoided the fees of $3 to $6 per minute, and airlines said the in-flight phones were added weight that increased fuel costs. Delta Air Lines has removed the phones from all of its planes. American has taken the phones off all domestic routes.
Related: Cell Phones to work in NYC Subways
Source: In-Flight VoIP Calling | Inflight Phone Calls and VoIP | WP