OT: Retro in-flight telephony onboard SAS...
 

Ah, the memories! I just spotted this on my daily commute to ARN on a 736 from my bulkhead seat. It even has the old AT&T logo... <3

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/346078/Misce...att_phone.jpeg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/346078/Misce...one_close.jpeg

Was there ever anyone who used one of those?
You swiped your credit card directly in the handset, right?

I made a ten minute call once from SK903 to a guy who was getting married!

Over the past few years, I've made three phone calls to three different girlfriends... :D

At the same time?:D

I'm using it when I have to fly longhaul at the middle of something hot in my business. Just diverting my mobile to secretary and she collects messages from people, and I'm calling her every hour or so to check what's going on and then can also call some people who were looking for me. Not happens too often those days, but I remember the times when some HKG-LHR and SIN-LHR flights were enging up in $2000+ phone bills per flight :)
I've tried on my last SK A330 flight but something was wrong with the system.

I've used the phones on A340/330 a few times, wasn't too expensive (16-20$?) and well worth it.

Still don't know if it makes sense on short haul. Even on long haul it can't be making money if you think the cost of installing and having all that equipment on board.

I don't know what SK is charging, but other longhaul carriers used to charge anything between 6 to 15 dollars for the first minute, and 5-8 dollars per minute afterwards.

I've used in on the long haul flights a few times, but never on the smaller aircrafts. Like Oliver said, it wasn't that expensive.

Didn't they have it in *every* arm-rest for a while -- those nice pop-out phones? It must have costed a fortune to install with hardly anybody using it, and costing another half-fortune to remove it...

Correct! And don't forget the ground segment. I believe in Sweden two companies got the right to build the infra structure. One of them being Cable & Wireless. I can't remember who did pull out before they even launched the service.

I probably paid for most of this investment through my numerous calls between CPH and PEK, drunk :p

Seemed like a good idea to call friends and family.