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WirelessCabin: Use Your Mobile Phone on Airplanes
securitas writes "What if didn't have to turn off your mobile phone when you travel by air? eWEEK's Matthew Broersma reports on a European Commission project to enable mobile phone use on airplanes. The technology works by creating short-range 'picocells' that force transmission output power to drop to 1/1000th of normal, reducing electronic interference, then using a satellite uplink. The WirelessCabin project members include the German Aerospace Centre, Siemens, Ericsson and Airbus. Initial trials will use 'GSM, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections' but will add CDMA and 3G standards. WirelessCabin is already making a picocell with CDMA2000. The first demonstrations are scheduled for this summer on Lufthansa long-haul flights with the A340-600 jet."
is simply a red herring. The airlines stand to make confiscatory profits from the seat-back phones, which charge upwards of $10/minute. Thus, there is no incentive for them to change. Why would this be adopted?
Stop corporate
I can't tell you how nice it would be to have wifi on the plane...
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AlmostFreeLinux.com
Does anyone know where I could find some sort of evidence that there is a danger to begin with? Maybe then I'll stop believing that it's purely a matter of hoovering my wallet as completely as possible.
Ignorance is the root of all evil.
Reliable independent comm in flight, and even internet connectivity, could be used to notify officials and the military if they're asleep on the job about a terrorist event.
The RULE on all airplane flights should be, "Sit down, don't smoke, don't talk, shut the fuck up and read a book because hundreds of strangers need to get along so be fucking polite, please." That should be written on every ticket.
I can't stand how self-indulgent most people are, and how important they want to think they are, and can't go without a cell phone or a deep conversation about Cosmo magazine for a few hours. Grow the fuck up and learn to sit still and read something quietly on a place. Seriously.
This is technology being used in a very BAD way IMO.
(from the bottom of the article):"Connexion's pricing, announced late last month, puts unlimited Wi-Fi access at $29.95 for flights longer than six hours; $19.95 for flights between three and six hours; and $14.95 for flights less than three hours. Connectivity can be purchased on a metered basis for $9.95 for the first 30 minutes and 25 cents for each additional minute. Airlines are considering an option to pay for connectivity with frequent-flyer miles, Boeing has said."
$20.00 / 6 hours = $3.33/hour
or
$30.00 / 6+ hours = ~$5.00/hour on East Coast US to Europe flights down to 1.50 an hour or so for those West Coast US to Australia flights.
& I thought 24.95 for a day's access at a conference was exorbitant!
Your complaints about being offended offend me.
Seriously. I enjoy not being hassled by clients, etc. for those hours that I'm flying. I also like not having to listen to OTHER people gabbin' on the phone.
Just relax... Read a book. Listen to some music (softly).
My sig sucks.
Please, for the love of fuck and people that you don't want to die, DO NOT put shit like that as a title. Half-wit, uber-13373, i'm-in-a-muthafuckin-rush-and-am-cooler-and-more-i mportant-than-the-world morons will read that and use whatever phone they happen to have on hand as the plane is in the last seconds of landing run in instruments only weather.
Nice.
The purported reason for the restriction is that it could interfere with the plane's function, not about problems it causes you. So I guess you and a couple hundred other people are lucky that the warning isn't accurate and your cell phone didn't make anything go boom.
Why would roaming between cells on an aircraft be any different then roaming between cells while driving? Do I kick people off their calls if I switch to a new tower when I drive behind a building? Somehow I doubt it -- the cell networks are designed with roaming in mind.
When the only time you can get 3 hours of peace is on a flight from X to Y and you have to sit next to Joe on the phone to his secretary talking about the meeting he has five days from now (which he could call and talk to her about tomorrow) you might care.
That's a physiological problem not a technical problem. My question was is there any technical reason why cell phones won't work from airplanes? They obviously do work -- some of the people on the hijacked planes during 9/11 called out on them -- yet the FAA won't let you use them because they might 'interfere'. Is this founded or just paranoia?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Well, thats easy.
After the initial handshake the sending power is reduced to a minimum needed to keep contact to the corresponding cell, and in most situations thats 1/10th or so of the peak transmission power.
So while the initial handshake will cause interferences (most likely short bursts of noice, in 1 second periods), later the power is to little.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
The tower is probably asking the phone to return some information before connecting the call. Some sort of handshaking system I would imagine to make sure the call is connected to the right phone....
That'd be my guess.
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. -Martin Luther
A United flight SFO-EWR flight I took a couple weeks ago allowed IM (AIM, MSN, ICQ and Y!) access for $5.99 for the duration of the flight. You connect your laptop to a phone line, dial up to any number and it connects. Their router then only allows IM traffic to the ground.
Brilliant! Why would I need to use a phone with some rediculous per-minute charge if I can chat with 5 people at once while in the air without disturbing other passengers nonetheless..
Email (POP3/SMTP) access was $20.
So now in addition to have to sit next to sweaty bloated people with bad perfume, I will have to listen to a cabinful of loud talking idiots sucking up to some customer they want to squeeze. No thanks, I'd rather have cigar smoke that that.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I often fly through Atlanta when travelling and the flight from Huntsville (where I live) to Atlanta is about 35 minutes gate-to-gate (~20-25 minutes in the air).
I am always amazed at the type-A people who have their finger poised over the power button when the wheels hit the ground so they can get on the phone to talk business.
I'm not talking about the worried flyers who call their wife/mom/kids/whoever to say they've arrived safely, but the big deal makers suffering cell phone withdrawal after 30 minutes disconnection. These are usually the same people who have packed for a four day trip in oversized carry-on luggage because checking a bag would take too much time and they jump to their feet as the plane taxis up to the gate and grab their bags as if that is going to get them off the damned plane any quicker.
Sorry, had to rant (and I'm flying this weekend and already dreading it).
-- stream of did I lock the front door consciousness
When the only time you can get 3 hours of peace is on a flight from X to Y and you have to sit next to Joe on the phone to his secretary talking about the meeting he has five days from now (which he could call and talk to her about tomorrow) you might care.
You say that as if it would be peaceful without cell phones! Hah! The little kid behind you doesn't care whether or not he/she could drive the most steel-nerved adult crazy within the course of a couple hours (or maybe it's the parent who refuses to do nothing to calm the child), he/she'll do it anyway!
My point is, airplanes are NOT theaters, no matter how much the people who need sleep wish it could be. The funniest thing I have ever heard in my life (and I hear it a lot) is, "I don't have to sleep now, I'll sleep on the plane."
The power of Christ compiles you.
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And then, just as the plane approaches for landing in a tricky crosswind, your phone comes within range of the radio tower, and starts receiving a bunch of SMS messages (the 'welcome to such-and-such network' ones, and yes, phones do transmit as well when receiving messages), and screws up the avionics. But now, there is very margin for error and that twitch might well cause a crash.
Not following these safety regulations on aircraft is not only illegal, it's utterly stupid.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Hams and RF engineers regularly hang around transmitters that put out hundreds of watts, with no ill effects.
When I key up my ham radio, the stereo in the living room starts screeching full volume, and the TV upstairs dies. Annoying? Yes. Dangerous. No.
Before you wish for cell phones on planes, take a train sometime.
hi! guess what! my cell phone works on the train! but it never seems to work quite right unless i yell into it!!
Back,
When they actually allowed you to light up a cigarette on a plane they usually had a section at the back of the A/C for smokers.
With any luck we could see the rear of the A/C reserved for cell-users (or was that cell-losers).