Originally Posted by
GenevaFlyer
Actually, there has been research on the subject. Most calls from the sat phones last 1 or 2 minutes:
"Hey Mom, guess where I am? .... Oops, just went over the first minute, I just spent $20"
There then is a long gap in the statistics, before you get a significant number of calls lasting more than 20 minutes. This is the businessman who needs to close a deal, and the $200+ for that call doesn't matter.
But how many calls there are approximately per one long-haul flight? I think not many actually.
And because mobile phone roaming would actually utilize the satellite link then I would guess the roaming fee will be somewhere near the satellite phone call and most of the people wouldn't be doing many mobile phone calls onboard. That's why I am not much afraid about this and how many airlines would actually enabled this onboard. In the beginning people would try this just for fun but soon we would be reading articles in the newspaper how expensive that is and then people just stop calling (unless they really need to call).