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Airlines ; The Final Frontier.

by Greg Myers on Apr 8th, 2008 at 9:23 am EST
8 Comments »
 

a380_16.jpgI don’t have a lot of information on this one so I will just post what I know. The European Airline commission has given the go-ahead for Airlines to install mobile phone transmitters/receivers aerials  within their aircraft. This will give the traveller the full use of their mobile phones within the aircraft at 35,000 ft. Now I don’t know whether or not you will get the bill from the airline company or your carrier but this is one of the last frontiers for mobile phone usage. Hang on a minute, yesterday it was dangerous to use your cell phone on a commercial airliner because it ‘Could’ interfere with the sensitive navigation equipment (or something like that)… So have the airlines changed all of their navigation equipment ? (They are probably using Nav4All on a 8310 Curve and need coverage :) ) Or have they done a deal with the European network carriers ? Whatever the excuse for it now being safe to use a cell phone on an airliner, I won’t use one on-board until I see the ‘MythBusters’ prove you can’t crash a plane with a mobile phone… :) . There’s a challenge boys…

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8 Comments to “Airlines ; The Final Frontier.”

  1. Posted by: Luciano ES
    April 8, 2008 at 9:40 am EST

    I’ve heard that current towers go bananas trying to track and keep in touch with devices that fly by at a couple of hundred miles per hour.
    .
    I’ve also heard that companies are afraid to deal with the social aspect: who wants to fly sitting next to someone who is yapping all the way? Note that people tend to speak a lot louder on the phone. I foresee a reprise of the old battle between smokers and non-smokers…
    .
    I wonder if John Clark reads our blog. ;-) He should have some inside info…

  2. Posted by: royeiror
    April 8, 2008 at 2:47 pm EST

    I think i remember an episode of mythbusters where they tested avionics with a phone transmitting within. Myth busted if I remember correctly

  3. Posted by: David B
    April 8, 2008 at 3:17 pm EST

    I fly frequently for work, and always considered the airplane door closing a relief, as all the loud-mouths had to shut up and turn off their phones. Can you IMAGINE how unruly it’s going to get (especially on business hub small planes) when everybody on the plane is trying to talk at the same time on a cell?

    Personally, I think the airlines should segment their cabins and have cell phone and no cell phone zones. And I will NEVER buy a ticket for a ride in the cell phone zone.

    Air travel is going to REALLY suck.

  4. Posted by: bjsgarda
    April 8, 2008 at 4:12 pm EST

    Myth busters did that show already.

  5. Posted by: Randy
    April 8, 2008 at 5:52 pm EST

    Great post, hilarious!

  6. Posted by: Bill Buchan
    April 9, 2008 at 4:16 am EST

    My understanding is that the phones got banned because air traffic conrl were sick of pilots mobile phones going off as the planes descended (and got signal again) just about the time the air traffic controllers needed to talk to the pilots.

    Interfere with the avionics ? Pah! How many planes have crashed in the last 15 years because of mobile phones ? None ?

    –* Bill

  7. Posted by: Greg Myers
    April 9, 2008 at 8:20 am EST

    Great feedback. I totally agree with every comment each of you have written.
    *Yes, air travel sucks bad enough now so you could just imagine having to listen to a lovers quarrel from the person sitting across the isle. (Then again, that could be better than some of the recent movie releases)
    *Thanks for the tip on Mythbusters. I haven’t seen that ep yet…We are a bit behind in Aus when it comes to TV shows.
    *And no, I haven’t heard of a plane going down because of cell phones…In fact, as we are all aware, they can be used to great effect in some circumstances in preventing certain situations.
    Thanks again for all the feedback…

  8. Posted by: David B
    April 9, 2008 at 11:22 am EST

    Another thing to remember in this discussion is that while it’s pretty easy to do over in Europe from an infrastructure on the plane perspective (all phones are GSM), it’s going to require double the effort here in the Americas. Cell phones in both North and South America are split between GSM and CDMA. They’d have mass customer defections on their hands if they only supported one and not the other. Unless some company has developed a magic box that can talk to either cellular radio technology???

    But regardless of the technology behind it, I still think it’s a horrible idea. I honestly don’t care if someone has to wait an hour or five in order to make/receive calls. I mean they’re on the plane until it lands anyway right?

    I have no problem at all if the airlines want to offer DATA service though. As long as they blocked UMA or other VOIP technologies that allow voice calls over data connection. The technical hurdles are large there too, as again there are two standards (three if you count WiFi) for that. I WOULD like to be able to web browse or RSS read or email or MMS or whatever, as those are all activities that are nowhere near as intrusive to the person in the next seat as carrying on a conversation with the air would be.