New Delhi, Nov. 22: The civil aviation ministry is working on guidelines for in-flight Wi-Fi services and is likely to issue them within the next few months.

The department of telecom (DoT) had already considered it feasible to have in-flight Wi-Fi services within the Indian airspace.

Over the last couple of months, the telecom, home and aviation ministries have held several rounds of discussions to resolve various security and technical issues and have arrived at a consensus on the matter.

"Various technical and operational modalities are in the advanced stage of finalisation," an aviation ministry official said, adding that the facility will be available for domestic as well as foreign carriers flying in the Indian airspace.

On security issues, the official said monitoring of "data and voice transmission" by the security agencies was being finalised.

On-board Wi-Fi will enable passengers to surf the internet, check e-mail, use instant messaging, social media and even make voice or video calls over internet (VoIP) using WhatsApp or Skype.

India does not allow in-flight Wi-Fi services on national security grounds. International airlines such as Emirates, Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines are required to switch the internet off on entering the Indian airspace.

"The DoT has already moved a proposal for providing inflight connectivity for voice, data and video services for consideration of the committee of secretaries," minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha informed the Rajya Sabha today.

In a written reply, he said the proposal involved the amendment of provisions of Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 and Indian telegraph rules.

Business viability

Some airlines maintain that the setting up of Wi-Fi on an airplane will be unviable in a cost-sensitive market such as India. However, analysts and industry experts contend that there is enough demand to justify the expense.

Usually, airlines offer Wi-Fi services through a server on planes that hooks up with a ground-based mobile broadband network or links to satellites. While towers can be used to provide connectivity in short-haul flights flying over land, satellites can be used when flights move over water.

"Equipping a plane with Wi-Fi costs around $90,000- $100,000 and if airlines charge Rs 100-200 per customer to surf the internet for the duration of a flight it could be turned commercially viable," said Varun Bansal, director, Airlines Technology - a tech company that helps airlines, travel agents and third-party vendors drive more revenue out of business.

Bansal said passengers would be willing to pay for the service.

"Definitely there will be buyers... Apart from business travellers, a lot of millennials will go for it. Everyone wants to remain connected for sharing pictures and experiences on social media, even if the journey is short."