Air-ground Radiotelephone Service - Frequencies

Frequencies

Two separate frequency bands have been allocated by the FCC for air-ground telephone service. One at 454/459 MHz, was originally reserved for "general" aviation use (non-airliners) and the 800 MHz range, primarily used for airliner telephone service, which has shown limited acceptance by passengers. AT&T Corporation abandoned its 800 MHz air-ground offering in 2005, and Verizon AIRFONE (formerly GTE Airfone) is scheduled for decommissioning in late 2008, although the FCC has re-auctioned Verizon's spectrum (see below). Skytel, which had the third nationwide 800 MHz license, elected not to build it, but continued to operate in the 450 MHz AGRAS system. Its AGRAS license and operating network was recently sold to Bell Industries (April 2007).

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. Activating or reactivating an existing Flitefone instrument can be accomplished by calling 800-552-4727.

In the 800 MHz band, the FCC defined 10 blocks of paired uplink/downlink narrowband ranges (6 kHz) and six control ranges (3.2 kHz). Six carriers were licensed to offer in-flight telephony, each being granted non-exclusive use of the 10 blocks and exclusive use of a control block. Of the six, only three commenced operations, and only one persisted into the 1990s, now known as Verizon Airfone.