Airtel joins 'Seamless Alliance' to bring in-flight connectivity to subscribers

Bharti Airtel on Monday said it has joined the 'Seamless Alliance', which would empower mobile operators and airlines to extend their services into airline cabins, a company statement said.

The formation of 'Seamless Alliance' was announced on Monday in Barcelona.

Through this alliance, the member operators, including Airtel, would be able to continuously provide their customers - via satellite technology - the same high speed, low latency connectivity from ground, to air and back again.

It would also significantly reduce costs for everyone involved while creating a smooth, positive user-experience.

Other founding members include OneWeb, Airbus, Delta and Sprint.

The global alliance - which aims to attract additional industry operators beyond the five founding members - would eliminate the immense costs and hurdles commonly associated with acquisition, installation, and operation of data access infrastructure by streamlining system integration and certification, providing open specifications for interoperability, increasing accessibility for passengers and enabling simple and integrated billing.

"We are delighted to be a founding member of this innovative technology platform to bring seamless connectivity to customers in the true sense. Over 370 million mobile customers across Airtel's global network will be able to enjoy uninterrupted access to high speed data services even while they are in-flight. We look forward to collaborating with all partner members to ensure this platform goes LIVE at the earliest," said Gopal Vittal, Managing Editor and CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel.

Airtel is the third largest mobile operator in the world with operations in 16 countries across Asia and Africa.

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