Emirates launch free wireless internet on long-haul flights

The Dubai-based airline Emirates is now introducing free wireless internet on board a large portion of its fleet, available to all passengers, regardless of cabin class. The service will be offered on 53 Airbus A380’s and 28 Boeing 777’s. Each passenger will receive a free 10 MB to use during the flight, and if they want to continue browsing after the free 10 MB, the service costs 1 USD for an additional 600 MB. $1 (about 65p) is a considerable difference to what most airlines charge for internet on board. Many airlines charge up to 10 dollars or more for an hour of connectivity, or a fee per MB that pretty quickly accumulates if you use a lot of bandwidth. According to Emirates, more than 3500 people used the internet on board last month, the average amount of data used was 28 MB, and most used Internet services like Google, Facebook and telecommunication services like Skype. Emirates hopes to attract more passengers with the new service.