Cell phone calls in flight?

[mendel]

Cell phone calls in flight?
Regulators eye revising rules to allow you to make, receive cellular calls on commercial flights.
December 9, 2004: 3:05 PM EST
By Chris Isidore, CNN/Money senior writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Federal regulators are set to begin discussions later this month on allowing the use of cell phones on commercial airline flights.

The Federal Communications Commission said that at its Dec. 15 meeting it will discuss possible revisions to rules prohibiting cell phone use on commercial flights. That's the first step of the process needed to lift the ban.

Cell phone use has been banned due to concerns about how it could affect an aircraft's navigation. And cell phones sometimes have trouble working when the plane is at cruising altitude because phone towers aren't built to project their signals that high.

The FCC rules have less to do with the effects on a plane's navigation than concerns that cell phones on planes could wreak havoc with cell phone systems on the ground.

While the FCC will start considering the issue next week, don't expect a decision anytime soon. The agency will have a lengthy review period, and according to one FCC spokesperson, this review period will last well into next year. Ultimately however, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), will make its own decision.

The FAA says there's no proof that cell phone use on commercial flights is safe and is currently conducting its own studies. The issue is whether the signals from the phones will interfere with the pilot's ability to navigate the plane.

The RTCA, an organization that advises the FAA on technical matters, has been researching this issue. Their final report is scheduled for 2006. That report will then factor in the FAA decision, therefore a decision before 2006 would be unlikely.

But airlines eager to attract business flyers have been looking for ways to keep customers connected to the ground while in flight, including Internet and cell phones.

In July, American Airlines (Research) and cell phone maker Qualcomm (Research) held a demonstration in which in-cabin calls were made using commercially available cell phones through a small cellular base on board that connected to worldwide terrestrial phone networks.

The passengers on the plane could both receive and make calls while on the flight.

Among those making calls on that two-hour flight were government officials, executives of the two companies and reporters.

American Airlines said at that time that regular commercial application of the tested technology was at least two years away.

But the idea of having cell phones allowed on flights worried some flyers, who said they dreaded being next to someone having a loud and prolonged conversation.

"Can you imagine being in the middle seat between two business people making phone calls for 3 hours?" said Les Glass in an e-mail to CNN/Money. "What are the airlines and the FCC thinking?"

One reader suggested that to allow cell phones increased the risk of violence on board planes due to confrontations between passengers. Others suggested that cell phones only be allowed in a segregated area of the cabin.








Find this article at:
http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/09/tech...ight/index.htm

[MOTOhooligan]

Great... If they approve this, flights are going to get more annoying. Imagine, since 54% of the US population has a wireless phone, 1/2 of the people on a plane yakking it up for a 2 hour (or more) flight. In fact, it would probably be more than 1/2 since a lot of people who fly do so for business and they are way more likely to have a wireless phone. I can think of a million people I'd rather be sitting next to than a business person blabbing about his TPS reports. They should keep the ban, not only for "safety" reasons but for common courtesy. Of course, if they're talking on their phones they won't be talking to me, which is also good.

[Andy]

If they allow cell phone use only in segregated parts of the cabin, then this would be awesome. If people would be blabbing away during the whole flight right next to me I'd probably get annoyed as well.

[Jodi]

Originally Posted by rancidhooligan

Great... If they approve this, flights are going to get more annoying. Imagine, since 54% of the US population has a wireless phone, 1/2 of the people on a plane yakking it up for a 2 hour (or more) flight. In fact, it would probably be more than 1/2 since a lot of people who fly do so for business and they are way more likely to have a wireless phone. I can think of a million people I'd rather be sitting next to than a business person blabbing about his TPS reports. They should keep the ban, not only for "safety" reasons but for common courtesy. Of course, if they're talking on their phones they won't be talking to me, which is also good.

I SO COSIGN on this one!!!

[SNSE]

Okay, here's the deal, since my company is involved in this process......

Wednesday the FCC will make some determination on what to do with the Air To Ground spectrum used by Verizon Airfone adjacent to the cellular band. There is discussion on whether to auction that spectrum into two mutually exclusive licenses, just renew Airfone's license and they pretty much use all the spectrum they want, or refuse to renew Airfone's license, and auction the spectrum into however many slices they decide, starting all over from scratch. The FCC has tended to be fairly competition oriented, so I don't see them giving Airfone all of the spectrum. Immediately after that, they will decide on waiving the Airborne Cellular rule, meaning, it will end the restriction on using "Wireless Devices" on airborne aircraft.

Two things to note:

1.) The wireless devices such as Wi-fi, cellular and PCS frequency phones, bluetooth devices, and so forth have all been tested in-flight, and to this date, there is not ONE documented case of these devices interfering with any aircraft system.

2.) The first generation of systems would not include voice, but would support Wi-fi, high speed data. The trend in handset manufacturers is to embed VOIP capability into most phone chipsets now, so, in a couple of years there may be voice, but it would use the embedded functionality of your handset to do it as VOIP. If you have a Qualcomm chipset made in the last 2 years, it is there, just not enabled in software by the phone manufacturer. But it IS there.

Of course, Verizon is playing bully at the FCC saying we are the only survivor, we earned this spectrum, they're (the competition) all idiots....yada yada yada.....and so on....

All of the mid-size air carriers down want competition, and they have made a point to let the FCC know it. The TSA wants the functionality deck to deck for air marshalls, the airlines want it for updating information in-flight, and so forth.

This is going to open up a huge boon for companies providing service, since road warriors with laptops will make a point to fly airlines providing this service. The technical part of designing the system will happen once the FCC lays the groundwork, and sets the rules for the playing field, but we have already outlined different scenarios in which to make it work.

That's about all I can give you for now, I'll probably know more after Wednesday's meeting.

This is also the reason I haven't been here much lately. You wanna see the filings, you can search docket number 03-103 at the FCC's Electronic Comment Filing System search tool. I believe Bobolito has posted those links somewhere around here. And NO, I don't work for Freakin' Verizon......YES, I do work for one of the companies with an interest in this. Unless Verizon wants to promote me to a VP level job....salary negotiable......