Airfone

Airfone allowed passengers to make telephone calls (later including data modem service) in-flight.

The original Airfone main office and network operations center are located at 2809 Butterfield Rd, Oak Brook, Illinois.

[1] Bell Mobility used the Airfone technology on Air Canada flights, but branded its service as Skytel (no relation to the Verizon-owned paging firm of the same name).

Airfone could be used for very slow modem calls, and attempts at data service were made in 2003 and 2004 using an on-board email proxy server.

[3] Delta Air Lines offered the United States's first public air-to-ground telephone system with Airfone.

In May and June 2006, the frequencies (bandwidth) over which Airfone operated were sold at auction by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to two new licenseholders, Aircell and LiveTV.

[7] For a time LiveTV offered, nationwide, mobile telephone style voice service to general aviation aircraft.