Replies to post #1264 on AS-IP Tech Inc (IPTK)

[MJAM2020]

Well that is good to see. Hopefully the technology is performing well and the commercial talks are progressing towards a positive conclusion. Feels like we are very close. It has been pretty quiet since we heard talks began. We know we are at least a month and a week into those discussions...maybe a bit more. Let us hope for very favorable terms and a near term launch of the service. Let's see some March Madness for the price of IPTK :)


UK lifts all testing requirements for vaccinated travelers
Vaccinated travelers can now enter Britain without taking any coronavirus tests

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press
February 11, 2022, 5:36 AM
• 4 min read


3:46
On Location: February 25, 2022

Catch up on the developing stories making headlines.
The Associated Press
LONDON -- Vaccinated travelers can enter Britain without taking any coronavirus tests starting Friday, after the government scrapped one of the final restrictions imposed over the past two years in response to COVID-19.

British residents and visitors who have had at least two doses of an approved coronavirus vaccine now only need to fill out a passenger locator form before traveling to the U.K. Unvaccinated people still have to take tests both before and after arriving but no longer need to self-isolate until they get a negative result.

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Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the U.K. “now has one of the most free-flowing borders in the world — sending a clear message that we are open for business.”

Airlines and other travel firms hailed the change as a lifeline after two years of severely constricted travel. Andrew Flintham, managing director of travel group Tui UK, said there was “a huge pent-up demand for international travel,” and people were rushing to book getaways for the February school break and April’s Easter holiday.

Gatwick, London’s second-busiest airport, said that it plans next month to reopen the second of its two terminals, shuttered since June 2020.

British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle urged other countries to follow Britain’s “pragmatic approach.”

But some scientists worry the government is moving too fast. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government lifted most domestic rules last month. Face masks are no longer mandatory in most indoor spaces in England, vaccine passports for gaining entry to nightclubs and large-scale events were scrapped, as was the official advice to work from home. Other parts of the U.K. — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — have also lifted most restrictions.

Johnson announced this week that he hopes to lift the final restriction — mandatory self-isolation for people who test positive — by the end of February as part of a plan to live long-term with COVID-19. Officials have said the government plans to switch from legal restrictions to advisory measures and treat the coronavirus more like the flu as it becomes endemic in the country.

Scientists expressed surprise at Johnson’s announcement. Tim Spector, an epidemiologist at Kings College London, said it was “more a political type of statement rather than a scientific one.”

“There is some rationale to this and other countries are doing things similar, but it’s clearly a race for the government to say that ‘Britain is first, Britain is the first to come out of this, Britain has conquered omicron, our booster program is world beating etc, etc,’” he told Times Radio.

The re-opening came as statistics showed the U.K. economy grew by a bigger-than-expected 7.5% in 2021, despite an omicron-driven slowdown at the end of the year. The re-imposition of some restrictions in response to the highly transmissible variant brought a 0.2% contraction in December.

The Office for National Statistics said the growth follows a 9.4% contraction in 2020 as the pandemic shut down big chunks of the economy. The U.K. economy is now back to the size it was in February 2020, just before the new coronavirus swept the U.K.

Britain has Europe’s highest coronavirus toll after Russia, with more than 159,000 officially recorded deaths. The country has seen a drop in both new infections and COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals since the peak of the omicron spike in early January.

Officials have credited the government’s booster jab program with preventing the surge in omicron cases from causing serious stress to U.K. hospitals. In Britain, 84.6% of people 12 and up have had two doses of a vaccine and almost two-thirds have had a third, booster shot.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/uk-lifts-testing-requirements-vaccinated-travelers-82821135

[MJAM2020]

From LinkedIn. Not sure if this is a new pg or one that has just been dormant until now?

ASiQ Pty Ltd
4 followers
1d • Edited • 1 day ago

Was HM Queen Elizabeth II the first airline passenger to text inflight?

The first passenger text message sent off a commercial airliner took place 30 years ago on the 18th of February 1992 onboard a QANTAS Boeing 747-400 (VH-OJJ). The aircraft was equipped with a VIP suite and the flight was between London and Sydney being the first leg of the Australian Royal Tour.

QANTAS were aware of ASI’s inflight PC installed on a private Boeing 737 and approached us to create an airline SATCOM version to facilitate personal communications during the tour.

The system manufactured by ASI was designated ACAMS. The Aircraft Communication and Management System provided the worlds first inflight passenger messaging service acknowledged by the WAEA (now APEX) below.

In 1992 it was called a Teletext. The text could be sent to a computer or converted to a FAX. This was 10 months prior to the evolution of SMS.

Handwritten text messages were typed into the ACAMS and sent via the new INMARSAT satellite constellation to the SiTA terrestrial airline network and delivered to the Palace. QANTAS confirmed all messages were received by the Palace and ultimately ACAMS was installed on thirty-one QANTAS B747-400 aircraft.

Following this historic tour, ASI replaced the ACAMS prototype on VH-OJJ which now holds pride of place in ASI’s museum.

That Royal flight launched ASI on a 30-year journey which resulted in another recent milestone in aviation history. The ultimate inflight free texting solution called fflya.

Last month ASI successfully concluded flight tests, of the world first “Bluetooth” inflight free texting platform on a Wizz Air A321.

The Wizz app connected via Bluetooth to a single router, which transmitted via a cabin window antenna to the Iridium Next Low Earth Orbit satellites. Over 10,000 text messages were sent, paving the way for millions to enjoy.

When I reflect on the past 30 years, I realise what’s so appealing about aviation. It will challenge you every step of the way, and just when you think you have it under control, Murphy pops up and does his best, but it has never stopped us as an industry from progressing.

Just look at the attached list of pioneering vendors. They all have two things in common, perseverance and a launch airline prepared to put their hand up.

As we continue to navigate through challenging times and strive to improve the passenger experience and enhance airline operations, we should always be grateful to those airlines prepared to back programs like fflya and ACAMS, and the brilliant engineers who despite the odds persevere.

I think a quote from Edison sums up ASI’s 30 years. “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”

Makes 10,001 so sweet.

Ron Chapman - CEO and Founder - ASI Group #airline #QANTAS #Queen #sita