We have mentioned WiFi on planes quite a few times on BerryReview and the topic has me excited. Quite a few airlines are rolling out internet to their planes and the big question has been what they will do with technologies such as WiFi and UMA. The FAA has been pretty strict with phones on planes so I was curious to see how this would play out.
Turns out that Om at GigaOm did a bit of digging into Aircell who is powering the internet capabilities on American. He asked an Aircell spokeswoman and got the following response: “The carriers and Aircell have taken a position on this (VOIP) because we don’t want people talking on the plane.” It looks like they will be monitoring traffic patterns and blocking streams that look like VOIP.
Guess that closes one Airline for now. I was kind of afraid of having to sit next to a yapping neighbor on my next flight… What do you think?
via GigaOm
Nate ( View Profile) Moderator - Posts: 16
Posted: August 28, 2008 at 10:41 AM EST
No no no no… Screaming babies are bad enough. If I have to listen to someone hold a 4 hour conversation on my flight, I might just jump out…
Although, I will have a screaming baby of my own to worry about in a few months!
Nikolaus Not Registered
Posted: August 28, 2008 at 12:11 PM EST from my BlackBerry 8320
I think this still comes down to common sense!! I want to be able to make a quick phone call if I need to, using a low voice, from my flight. At soon as the wheels hit the ground everyone turns on their phones and starts yapping away “I just landed” and we might have a 10 minute taxi to the gate. I never hear people complain about that! I am not the type to talk on the phone in the elevator, and leave my cube area whenever I have a personal call so not to disturb my coworkers, but if I want to make a quick UMA call, say not at my seat but from the back by the bathrooms even, I should be able to.
Luciano ES ( View Profile) Moderator - Posts: 448
Posted: August 28, 2008 at 2:23 PM EST
Then everybody would flock to the bathroom and the plane would sink in the aft.