Air passengers could soon be able to chat on their mobile phones during flight thanks to a link-up between Bradford University and industry.

The University has won a £50,000 grant to set up a new unit to help provide aircraft passengers and cabin crews with better telecommunications during flight.

The move is part of the University's Knowledge Transfer Partnerships which try to boost links between university research and industry.

The Aeronautical and Wireless Communications Agile Technology Unit (ATU) has been launched with the grant from the Northern Aerospace Technology Exploitation Centre (NATEC).

Dr Fun Hu, a reader in the University's Department of Cybernetics, Internet and Virtual Systems, who received the grant on behalf of the University, said it was a big boost to the project.

The unit has been working alongside some of the world's leading mobile phone firms, aircraft manufacturers and airlines on its research.

Dr Hu said she believed passengers could be able to use third generation mobile phones on aircraft within a year.

And the same technology could also be used on other forms of transport such as trains.

"The exploitation opportunities of the ATU are potentially huge," she said. "The aeronautical sector is the only technological sector where telecommunication operators and service providers have failed to gain a foothold.

"However, this situation is set to change over the next two to three years.

"The belief within the aeronautical sector is that the passengers are now ready for mobile solutions, in much the same way as commuters experience on the railways. Such an opportunity to enter a market in its infancy cannot be missed."

The ATU will benefit from state-of-the-art hardware and software through the University's newly established Mobile and Satellite Communications Research Centre (MSCRC) for research and commercial development.

Project engineer Richard Hodgson will assist Dr Hu and help develop the necessary hardware and software.