I'd Like to Get More Meat on the Bones of this Argument....

[Bill Giltner]

Update March 23, 2007

clipped from findarticles.com

GTE phones home - GTE's Airfone uses a data warehousing and mining system - Company Business and Marketing

Telecommunications has taken flight on major airlines across the United States, as approximately two million air travelers each month use GTE Airfone to make in-flight calls. The familiar phone, embedded in the backs of seats on most airplanes, represents millions of credit card transactions. However, gathering billing data from all those calls in the air and turning it into useful information has proven to be a challenge.

Airfone's network consists of base stations around the country that receive and transmit telephone calls from aircraft in flight, a setup similar to cellular networks. These base stations retain calling details and are connected to the central office in Oakbrook, Ill.

from March 5, 2007

Have a look at this document
Does anyone else find it strange that GTE/Verizon decided not to charge for Air Phone Calls on 9/11/2001?

Normally it would be straight forward police work to trace the charges to the callers, or for those who were handling the estates to open credit card bills and see a charge associated with credit cards for the calls placed. It would be easy to see who did and didn't use their charge cards, and the duration of the call(s) would be easily verifiable.

Just another loose end that should be followed up, I think.

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Additional details are to be found (about Airphone calls) here:

http://www.archives.gov/legislative/research/9-11/staff-report-sept...

[SwingDangler]

Hey, BG! Great find. Interesting they would go back to 9/11 to give "free? calls that they charged on that day. I guess that means, one, they will scrub the records of the day because it is now free.