Originally Posted by
GUWonder
They weren’t used very much by passengers — too costly for most and not used by most passengers — and became even less useful for consumers and more of a maintenance and carry cost burden for the airline+phone service providers as cell phones/blackberry/smartphones took off along with internet access on the ground and even in the air.
That's what I figured. What was the point anyways? Just a novelty to be able to make a call from a plane in the air? Or just to call someone to say you were landing soon and to have them pick you up? Any idea how long they were installed in aircraft?