The 450 MHz General Aviation network is administered by Mid-America Computer Corporation in Blair, Nebraska, which has called the service AGRAS, and requires the use of instruments manufactured by Terra and Chelton Aviation/Wulfsberg Electronics, and marketed as the Flitephone VI Series.
An air-to-ground radiotelephone technology demonstration occurred during 1923 Toulouse Air Show at Francazal and Montaudran airports, in France.
[2] The first recorded air-to-ground radiotelephone service on a scheduled flight was in 1937 on the Chicago-Seattle route by Northwest Airlines.
[3][failed verification] AirFone commenced its service in the early 1980s starting with first-class under experimental licenses; the FCC's formal allocation was in 1990.
The service was always priced extremely high--$3.99 per call and $4.99 per minute in 2006—and has seen less and less use as the ready availability of cellular telephones has increased.
In 2003, Verizon partnered with Tenzing Communications to offer very low-speed email using an on-board proxy server and limited live instant messaging at rates of 64 to 128 kbit/s on United Airlines and two other carriers.
(Tenzing was merged into a new entity called OnAir along with investment from Airbus and SITA, an airline-owned systems integrator.
An interim approach by Aircell was to utilize the existing ground-based cellular network, with highly directional antennas beamed upward.