US Behind on In-Flight Cell Phone Use

According to a New York Times report, passengers on foreign airlines have routinely begun using cell phones and other wireless devices mid-flight while the flight attendants union urges Congress to ban in-flight phone calls and airline passengers shows strong opposition to allowing cellphones on planes in the United States.

While domestic airlines rush to wire their cabins to provide in-flight Wi-Fi connectivity, there is no indication whether, or when, passengers in the United States might be able to make a cellphone call at 37,000 feet.

The Times reports there have been remarkably few complaints so far, despite dire warnings that cellphone use on planes would unleash social turbulence and possibly even violence in the cabin, industry executives and passengers say.

The Federal Communications Commission in Washington currently prohibits in-flight cellphone use on planes, partly because of some unresolved questions about the potential for interference with aircraft navigation equipment, but mostly because of phone industry concerns that airborne cell signals radiate widely, randomly contacting different ground stations. That would create interference between systems and cause logistical problems for things like billing.

But on some foreign airlines, those technical issues have been resolved. On-board equipment regulates the signals by routing them via satellite to the correct point on the ground. Passengers with standard international roaming service can make or receive calls or text messages just as they would on the ground. They are billed as usual by their cellphone providers.

(September 29, 2009)

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