Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: "John R. Levine" Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Airfone Service by GTE Message-ID: <2619@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 5 Jan 90 16:30:58 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA Lines: 37 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 7, message 9 of 10 I have used Airfones a few times. You walk to the phone (unless it's in the back of the next seat, as on some Trump shuttle planes) and put in a credit card, then it unlocks and you can take the handset, which resembles a cordless phone, back to your seat. It takes the usual cards, Amex, MC, VISA, but not any telco calling cards. You wait, sometimes a long time, for it to seize a channel and get a dial tone, then dial calls the usual way. They're very expensive, $7.50 for the first three minutes for calls withing the U.S. and about $2/minute after that. (The rates may have recently been changed, but not by much.) Directory assistance is free, 800 numbers are not. International calls are possible but I haven't tried any. The bad news is that they don't work worth beans. The connection is terrible, sort of like talking to East Germany, with lots of static and distortion, often to the point where you can't understand the other person. There is interference on the plane itself, and I've found that you hear a lot better if you keep the phone next to the base rather than going back to your seat. The phone only works when the plane is actually in the air, so the time when you most need it, when you're stuck on the ground for an hour waiting for a landing slot so you can take off, you can't use it. In short, I don't think it merits the radio channel that the FCC has assigned it. The Airfone company has had a checkered career. There used to be some connection with GTE, since severed. It is run by Sandy Goeken, who I believe is the daughter of the guy who started MCI, who like her father had to overcome innumerable technical and political barriers to get the service started. I only wish she'd turned her talents to something more worthwhile. Regards, John Levine, johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|lotus}!esegue!johnl