Many of the in-flight calls made by victims of 9/11 were made over Airfone.
American Airlines suspended use of Airfone in 2005, and the head of the Airfone division told the New York Times in 2004 that only two to three people use the Airfone service per flight.
Airfone's primary competitor was AT&T Wireless division Claircom Communications Group.
In May and June 2006, the frequencies over which Airfone operated were sold at auction by the Federal Communications Commission to two new licenseholders. Under the terms of the FCC order that authorized the auction, Verizon received a non-renewable license until 2010, but has two years from the end of the auction to redeploy Airfone to use less bandwidth and share spectrum with one of the license winners.
On June 23, 2006, Verizon Communications, Airfone's parent company, announced that they would be discontinuing their Airfone service on all commercial flights by the end of 2006. They cited the declining use of the service, as well as a desire to focus on their key businesses: broadband, wireless and wireline services. Airfone service is currently[when?] installed on 1000 aircraft belonging to United Airlines and Continental Airlines. US Airways and Delta Air Lines have removed all Airfone handsets from their planes. Verizon will continue to provide service on 3,400 private and government aircraft.
On December 28, 2007 Airfone announced it will discontinue service effective December 31, 2008 unless it successfully concludes negotiations with LiveTV, an affiliate of JetBlue, to take over the business on that date. On June 9, 2008, JetBlue announced that it will buy Verizon's Airfone service.
