Airtel joins global ‘Seamless Alliance’ for in-flight connectivity

India's largest telecoms operator Bharti Airtel today said it has joined a new global alliance to bring high-speed and uninterrupted in-flight data connectivity to mobile customers.

Photo credit: OnAir

Airtel has joined the 'Seamless Alliance', which would enable mobile operators and airlines to extend their services into airline cabins, a company statement said.

The formation of the 'Seamless Alliance' was announced today in Barcelona. Other founding members include OneWeb, Airbus, Delta and Sprint.

Through this alliance, the member operators, including Airtel, would be able to use satellites to continuously provide their customers high speed, low latency connectivity from ground to air and back again.

It would also significantly reduce costs for everyone involved while creating a smooth, positive user-experience, the statement said.

"Airtel has joined the Seamless Alliance which will usher in a new era of open innovation for mobile operators and airlines by empowering mobile operators to extend their services into airline cabins," the statement said.

The global alliance, which aims to attract additional industry operators beyond the five founding members, would eliminate the costs and hurdles commonly associated with acquisition, installation, and operation of data access infrastructure by streamlining system integration and certification, providing open specifications for interoperability, increasing accessibility for passengers and enabling simple and integrated billing.

''We are delighted to be a founding member of this innovative technology platform to bring seamless connectivity to customers in the true sense. Over 370 million mobile customers across Airtel's global network will be able to enjoy uninterrupted access to high speed data services even while they are in-flight. We look forward to collaborating with all partner members to ensure this platform goes live at the earliest,'' said Gopal Vittal, Airtel's managing director and chief executive (India and South Asia).

Airtel is the third largest mobile operator in the world, with operations in 16 countries across Asia and Africa.