International Communications Group (ICG) announced Aug. 8 the introduction of an Iridium satellite conversion program for customers being affected by the pending shutdown of the Verizon Airfone air-to-ground telephone service in North America.

Verizon Airfone provides air-to-ground communication for aircraft operating in the North American airspace through an integrated, ground-based infrastructure. Verizon announced that the Airfone service will be decommissioned Dec. 4 unless a buyer for the division can be found. This will affect some 4,000 passenger aircraft and business jets currently equipped with Teledyne‘s Magnastar telephone systems, which operate on the Verizon Airfone network.