Airfone

Airfone was a brand of in-flight telephone service available on commercial airlines, primarily in the United States. Introduced in the early 1980s, the service allowed passengers to make telephone calls from their seats using handsets connected to a network that routed calls via radio frequencies to ground-based stations.

Originally developed by a partnership between Goeken Communications and Millicom, the service was acquired by GTE in 1986 and later by Verizon in 2000. While Airfone provided a novel service at the time, it was expensive and inconvenient compared to advancements in cellular phone technology and later, in-flight Wi-Fi. Airfone handsets were typically located on the backs of seats or integrated into the armrests.

The Airfone service relied on analog technology and dedicated radio frequencies, a method that became increasingly obsolete with the proliferation of digital cellular networks. As cellular phone use became more widespread and regulations regarding in-flight cellular use evolved, Airfone's popularity declined significantly. Furthermore, the development of in-flight Wi-Fi services offered more versatile communication options, including voice calls, text messaging, and internet access.

Verizon discontinued the Airfone service in 2008. The decline of Airfone represents a shift in in-flight communication technology from dedicated analog systems to more modern, flexible, and widely adopted digital solutions.