National carrier Air India stumbled on this archaic - but still in vogue - rule while preparing to have Wi-Fi on its aircraft.
NEW DELHI: Each time you board an aircraft to fly in India - or even overfly the country - you are journeying back in time. An iron curtain prohibits flyers in Indian airspace from enjoying Wi-Fi connectivity. While international flyers can log on to the net as soon as they are out of Indian airspace, desi ones can do so only before takeoff and after landing.
National carrier Air India stumbled on this archaic - but still in vogue - rule while preparing to have Wi-Fi on its aircraft. A team of senior officials recently met officials of Geneva-based OnAir, which provides both internet and mobile connectivity to almost 30 top airlines globally like British Airways, Emirates, Etihad, Singapore Airlines and Thai.
"We were shown a real time presentation of aircraft in air using Wi-Fi and/or mobile connectivity. All planes over India were shown in red, meaning they had neither of these two connections. We were told that India does not allow these two things in air and so even planes of foreign airlines equipped with Wi-Fi and/or mobile connectivity have to switch their systems off, while flying over the country," said a senior AI official. The airline was told that some private and foreign airlines had in the past sought permission to use Wi-Fi over Indian airspace but were not given the same.
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