Emirates on 20 March launched the first authorized inflight cell-phone calls onboard a commercial flight. The service was introduced on an Airbus 340-300 aircraft, equipped with AeroMobile’s inflight connectivity system, flying from Dubai to Casablanca.

Passengers are able to send and receive voice calls and text messages inflight using their own personal mobile phones.
A maximum of five or six voice calls can be made simultaneously via the system, which is the same number as allowed on the current in-seat phones.

Charges are reported to be in line with international roaming rates, and users are billed on their regular phone bills by their own home mobile network operator.

The flight took almost 9 hours flying over six or seven national countries.

Both the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the UAE-based General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) granted full approval for the AeroMobile system to be used on Emirates.