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FCC to Auction Airwaves for Inflight Internet
maotx writes "The FCC is set to auction off existing licensed frequencies from Verizon on May 10 to provide communication services such as high-speed Internet to U.S. air travelers. Verizon is the current licensee of the range for their onboard phones found on most commercial jets. The auction will force Verizon to use the 1MHz range. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps fears that such an auction could allow a single provider to have a monopoly that could prey on consumers. The FCC is also weighing whether to allow consumers to use their own cell phones on planes."
I think the author meant THAT specific one mhz, not 1.000Mhz. Editing is useful.
Yup, they are saying that they plan to issue either 2 overlapping 3mhz licenses, or 1 3mhz license (for internet/data), and an additional 1mhz license (for verizon).
... or a misunderstanding. 1 MHz is currently in use by terrestrial AM broadcasters.
They are talking about the width, not the center frequency. So a 1 MHz wide band. I don't know what frequency at exactly, but likely in the 800-900MHz range.
Uh, no. Intereference is a real problem. The reason they started that whole thing was because things as small as the motor in a CD player were wreaking havoc on the plane electronics. I suspect today's systems are a little more shielded, but it's still a serious problem, especially since cell phones have to go to max power to reach a tower if they're in an airplane.
The FCC is considering allowing cell phone usage if airlines install their own "cell towers" in planes so that the signals don't have to be so powerful. Even with that, there will have to be a lot of studies done before they can approve it, and airlines would have to want to invest in the equipment (and put up with the social consequences).
The only solution is noise cancelling headphones. Pilots have awfully nice ones, but you can buy acceptable ones for a hundred bucks. My modest ones (Sennheiser PCX-250) block out the whole damned airplane so I can get some rest, listen to tunes, whatever. I leave them on with no audio input at all just to block out the noise while trying to sleep.
When I take them off to go to the lavatory I'm always surprised at how noisy that flying airplane tube really is.
Get noise cancelling headphones.
Part of that problem is that cell phone providers reuse the same frequency in non-adjacent cells. When your airborne cell phone talks to one such cell and is assigned a frequency for a call, your signal can actually be picked up by multiple cells that are also using the same frequency. It may interfere with another user on the ground who was assigned that same frequency by another cell.
Now take your phone up in an airplane over LA, and you're in line of sight of everything from Santa Barbara to Mexico, and you tie up a channel.
The proposals for cellphone use on airplanes involve installing a mini-terminal aboard the airplane, and connecting both that and Internet service to a ground station with a microwave link. Since the terminal will only be a few feet from you, your phone will put out a bare minimum amount of power and the leakage through the airplane windows won't be strong enough to hit ground cell terminals.
rj
it is concievable that it interferes with the 400MHz wiring in a plane
That's 400 Hz, not 400 MHz. All the electrical power in aircraft is at 400 Hz, instead of 60 Hz like in your house. The reason is that the fluorescent light ballasts, transformers inside power hungry avionics gear and other power rectifying equipment can be made smaller and lighter when run at 400 Hz. Ever noticed the slightly sour A flat note that comes from the intercom when the stewardess is giving the pre-flight "use your seat cushion for floatation" speech? That is caused by the same factors that cause the 60 Hz buzz in a guitar amplifier.
The ticking, warbling, or whatever sound you hear in your computer speakers when your cell phone connects or occasionally syncs with the nearest tower when on standby is caused by stray rf energy from your cellphone, and it can conceivably interfere with the avionics of the airplane, especially the fly-by-wire types, but rest assured, the avionics and signal cables connecting the various systems are well shielded, because they have to be hardened against the multi-megawatt electromagnetic pulse of rf energy that comes from lightning strikes in the thunderstorms planes sometimes have to fly in the vicinity of. I don't think the milliwatt or so of stray rf energy from cell phones will do anything, but somebody out there must have done a study to show otherwise...
I remember when I was working at a nuclear power plant, there were certain areas of the plant that were "radio exclusion zones", where the workers had to turn their walkie-talkies off. The reason is that the signals in the control systems could be disturbed by someone keying their mike, causing the reactor to scram (much like the disturbance from a neighbor big into CB radios who has illegal linear amplifiers and can be heard jaw-jacking through your TV, FM radio, washing machine, child's braces, etc.)