Air China will provide inflight phone calls and Internet access to passengers on international flights next year, probably before the Beijing Olympic Games, a Beijing-based mobile satellite service provider told Shanghai Daily yesterday.

It will be the first of China's big three carriers to adopt an onboard satellite phone service.

Air China, the nation's largest air carrier, plans to install the system on some flights, according to Jason Zhou of Beijing Marine Comm & Nav Co, which operates satellite services.

Air China will buy the capacity at wholesale prices from Beijing Marine and the carrier will decide what it charges passengers. Average fees for phone calls are about US$2 a minute and one megabyte Internet capacity costs US$10, Zhou said during an exclusive interview.

"The price (for onboard calls) won't be cheap as it is not a service that all passengers will use. Too many users will clog the satellite network," said Perry Melton, Inmarsat Plc's vice president of sales and marketing.

Inmarsat is a global mobile satellite communications service provider with 10 satellites covering 100 percent of the earth. Beijing Marine is Inmarsat's distribution partner in China.

Zhang Chunzhi, Air China's spokesperson, didn't answer phone calls yesterday.

Shenzhen Airlines, a smaller carrier, announced in September it had signed with OnAir to provide passengers with inflight communication, including emails, messages and voice calls. The services will be installed across Shenzhen Airlines' full fleet of Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 aircraft by the middle of 2009. Three will be in use before the Olympics in August.

Some Chinese air carriers will provide inflight communications services during the event, according to recent media reports that didn't provide details.

Inmarsat, which provides satellite access to OnAir, also has clients in marine, oil and gas and media, such as COSCO and CCTV, according to Melton.

(Shanghai Daily November 28, 2007)