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First Cellphone Use On Airplane Given OK
s31523 writes "With over 1 billion cell phone users worldwide, and with so many business travelers, using the cell phone on the airplane has been a recent hot topic. Emirate airlines is announcing they will give the OK for cell phone use on their planes, making them the first airline to do so. The FCC and FAA still ban the use, but are working to determine safety implications, if any."
To those confused, the real problem with cell phone use on airplanes is that you are traveling so fast that you are switching towers once every minute or so. One person is fine, millions doing it (which is what would happen if legal) would be a HUGE strain on cell phone networks. Airlines are installing cellphone tower equipment into their plane to eliminate this problem.
That is all class.
Sounds like good news for Bose; there are going to be a lot of people buying those noise-cancelling earphones.
I don't care if they determine that there is no need to ban cellphones because of interference with plane electronics -- I'd still rather the ban is kept anyway in order to keep flights from turning into cacophonous gab-fests. Flights are already uncomfortable and headache-inducing anyway...lets not make them noisy as well.
Because if being crammed into coach wasn't bad enough, now you can be crammed into coach next to some asshat having a loud conversation on his phone for the entire flight. Sounds like a damn good time!
"In case of emergency, break glass. Scream. Bleed to death."
I hope one of the health and safety issues they look in to is the effect a cell phone has on a trachea when forcefully inserted by an enraged passenger tired of hearing the unfortunate cell user blather for five continuous hours...
... that I can play Snake on a plane now?
Let's ignore the issues of cellphones interfering with the flight controls. We'll ignore that search for a random cellphone on some oriental airline long ago, purported to be messing up the landing.
From what I understand, cellphones work by associating themselves with "cells" of coverage. The closer they are, the less power they use, and so on. When the user moves cells, the network switches them over to the new cell.
From the air, a cellphone will see many, many different cells as being equally good. It will also have to switch across cells much faster than normal. Without the plane itself acting as a roving cell tower for the occupants, it seems to me that this would cause a lot of problems. Not only will all the cellphones be transmitting at full power, but the network will potentially have to handle many many more switches cell to cell, and faster than normal. There's evidence of this from TFA when it said some upscale, long-haul airlines are installing equipment onboard that will allow for cell phone use.
I'd love to hear from anyone in the business that could shed more light on these technical issues, and whether they are as big of a problem as I suspect if airlines were to just say "Sure! Use your phone!"
- Pay a huge premium for the privilege of using the plane's cell, or
- Pay a huge premium for using the phone installed in your seat.
Either way, it's likely to be so expensive that only real idiots would use it just to say "Hello! I'm on the plane!" I've flown quite a lot this year, and I don't think anyone used the in-seat phones on any flight I was on.I am TheRaven on Soylent News
This "Cellphones in Airplanes" type of article appears periodically in /. and every time I have to rise from my grave to correct the false speculation about cellphones interfering with avionics.
Cellphones do not cause aircraft to crash and burn! There. Thank you.
Here's my longer explanation for those interested: Avionics ABC
Airlines offering the use of GSM cellphone services equip the cabin with a basestation similar to one used RF-secure buildings and underground facilities. It will handle all the calls within the cabin and connect to the phone network via satellite datalink. It's all compatible, safe and tested method that has been used for years now on business jets.
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I doubt it. After being readied by your pleasant trip through security where you begged for your insulin back, the comfort of flying with your knees crushed into the back of the seat in front of you while a kid kicks the back of your seat will sooth your troubled soul. And if that isn't enough you can eat your bag of pretzles (only on select flights) on your tiny tray. Then you can join the 10 person long line to the toilet only to get to the front in time to be ordered by the flight attendant to get back to the your seat because they'll be landing in 1 hour.
No, I see no passengers being bothered by this.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
...only this time instead of smoking/non-smoking, we need cell phone and non-cell phone sections. Or better yet, talking and no talking sections.
"What do you get when you sit 120 people in seats designed for Erkel for 4 hours with 2 bathrooms, no smoking, available alcohol, and constant cell phone use?
Aluminum-Tube Deathmatch at 36,000 Feet!
Premiering this July on SPIKE TV!"
We want some answers and all that we get
Some kind of shit about a terrorist threat
- Ministry
And when you gaze long enough into the code, the code will also gaze into you.
Emirates said months ago that they were going to add this service, which uses an on-board picocell and relays calls very expensively very satellite. Should run at least US$2.50 per minute for calls. I wrote about this in The Economist back in September (not Emirates news): RyanAir will launch in-flight calling by the second half of 2007 on hundreds of its planes. That will be the first major deployment.
Freelance tech journalist for the Economist, MIT Technology Review, Macworld, and others
The problem with this is the sheer number of selfish assholes in the world. It's bad enough on trains, but being stuck on a long haul flight with these bastards would be too much.
I would never dream of holding a loud phone conversation in a quiet restaurant, or recklessly endangering people by using one while driving, or holding up a store queue by answering my phone while at a counter, or leaving the ringer on during a symphony or an exam because "my calls are important".
Yet I have seen all these things happen over and over again. The worst thing is that the people who do them have such a sense of entitlement that they believe they are doing nothing wrong, and that you are an asshole for objecting to their sociopathic behaviour.
I want to start a new political movement. Every time someone does something like this, you take their phone and smash it. Violence against the people who do it is also fully justified.
"by that I mean people who don't sit on slashdot all day wondering why everyone else isn't building robots" DECS
I wish you would be allowed to sleep completely flat (as in a bunk like a ship would be good enough for me). Would be great for trans-atlantic flights. I fly quite frequently and changing hours, planes and means of transport make me kinda tired. The average flight is 18 hours, with delays 24 hours of eyes-wide-open travelling fun.
Most airlines provide this on long-hauls. It's called First Class.
I also wish they would allow you to have sex on an airplane. Might not be for all Slashdotters, but as a frequent member of the High Mile Club,...
Beating off in the head doesn't get you into the Mile High Club.
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