The Telecom Commission has approved the In-Flight Connectivity within Indian space on May 1, and since then, it's said that the government held various meetings to finalise the recommendations to implement the service. Now, the Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha has stated that the government is hoping the service will be implemented within a year. "In one year we will be able to provide in-flight connectivity," Sinha told reporters of IANS, speaking at a media event organised to discuss the achievements of DoT in the last four years.
The government is currently holding various meetings with Airlines to discuss the regulations and procedure of implementing the service in India. When the service received approval, it was expected that airlines would provide IFC services to the travellers by December 2018, but it seems like the service rollout will be delayed to next year.
Furthermore, the IANS report added that "Communications Ministry officials will be meeting their counterparts in the Civil Aviation Ministry along with the telecom service providers in a week to 10 days to discuss this matter."
"Almost all recommendations by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on this have been accepted. We are expediting the process (to start) and within 3-4 months it should be ready. We will be operationalising this decision immediately," Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan had said earlier.
Furthermore, a Trai official recently confirmed that it's not putting any regulatory measures for the In-Flight Connectivity services within India. The approval from Telecom Commission was received on May 1 which will facilitate both voice and data calls along with data surfing within the Indian airspace.
Sundararajan said: "We have to create a separate category of the licensee, called In-Flight Connectivity Provider. This will also be applicable for ships. Re 1 will be the token licence fee. It is applicable above 3,000 metres."
Once the regulations come into place, it will further require cabinet approval for the implementation.
