Transportation Department Proposes Allowing In-Flight Phone Calls (go.com)

Yesterday, France's Le Monde newspaper issued a report, citing documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, that says American and British spies have since 2005 been working on intercepting phone calls and data transfers made from aircraft. Assuming the report is accurate, national security agencies may soon have their hands full if a new proposal by the Department of Transportation becomes official, which would allow each airline to decide whether its passengers will be permitted to make in-flight phone calls using the aircraft's onboard Wi-Fi system. ABC News reports: The Department of Transportation's proposal leaves it up to airlines whether to allow the calls. But carriers would be required to inform passengers at the time they purchase a ticket if the calls are allowed. That would give passengers the opportunity to make other travel arrangements if they don't want to risk the possibility of sitting near passengers making phone calls. The Federal Communications Commission prohibits using mobile phones to make calls during flights, but not Wi-Fi calls. There is a minimum 60-day comment period and the proposal leaves the door open to an outright ban. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the proposal.

Comments

For the love of God no

[nehumanuscrede]

Listening to folks yell into their phones passing by or in a restaurant is bad enough, imagine sitting next to one for an eight hour flight. :|

With no way to escape it.

Would almost be worth opening the door and jumping to your death from 30,000 feet. . . .

Re:For the love of God no

[Kjella]

Let's be honest, what's really killing you is the lack of social antennas. I've been next to a baby that was on full wailing for quite some time, despite the mother's best efforts and that was considerably worse than any idiot yapping on the phone. Didn't really want to make me throw myself or the baby off the plane, but I was quite happy I didn't have to deal with that every other hour of the day. Most people keep it short, most people keep a normal conversation volume and most of those who don't will take a hint.

And a few are the kind you want to strangle. But long before the flight was up I'd make a really loud "call" like "YES HELLO... OVER THE ATLANTIC NOW, DOING FINE. EXCEPT THERE'S THIS GUY WHO KEEPS TALKING REALLY, REALLY LOUND ON HIS CELL PHONE FOR AGES NOW, DOESN'T HAVE ANY SOCIAL ANTENNAS AT ALL. I HOPE HE HANGS UP SOON. SEE YOU SOON, LOVE YA" Fighting fire with fire usually works, if he goes psycho with luck they'll cuff him and throw him off the plane. Win-win either way.

No Thanks

[Coditor]

Air travel is bad enough without noise pollution.

What's the point

[Patent Lover]

If you're dumb enough to pay for that shitty wifi on flights good luck making a voip call over it. You're lucky to get an email out.

Re:What's the point

[Solandri]

I was on a Lufthansa flight from Chicago to Germany in 2006. They announced that since Boeing had decided to shut down Connexion, they were opening up the WiFi aboard the plane for everyone to use for free. I fired up my laptop while over the middle of the Atlantic, and used the service to VPN into my office. Got some work done, sent a few emails, and printed a quick document exclaiming in bold "I'm printing this from a plane in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!!!!' just for the folks in the office. I also logged into a MMO for a bit. The lag was too much to really do any combat, but I chatted with guild members about where I was playing from. Alas I had to shut down at that point because I'd drained my battery and they didn't yet have charging ports outside of first class.

I haven't tried the newer WiFi service aboard planes. But based on what you're saying, it sounds like the service is somehow worse than what Boeing had a decade ago and shut down because not enough airlines were interested?

Deja vu?

[LaughingRadish]

Didn't we go through a bunch of no about this a couple years ago?

Re:Cell Phone Jammer

[Gravis Zero]

Cell Phone Jammer In a lipstick tube FTW.

Congratulations on being the idiot that will make lipstick a prohibited item on airplanes!

Re:wifi jamming

[unixisc]

Have you ever tried a plane WiFi? They make you sign in and then only the airline website is free, other than that, you are charged based on the downloaded amount. Given how ad rich most sites are, you'll probably end up paying the cost of your ticket if you were to use it

Re:wifi jamming

[ncc74656]

you are charged based on the downloaded amount

Are you sure of that? Last time I flew Southwest (just weeks ago), it was $8 per device per day, with no cap, though it's slow enough that you're not going to download huge amounts of data anyway.

Why babies cry on planes

[Okian Warrior]

I've been next to a baby that was on full wailing for quite some time, despite the mother's best efforts and that was considerably worse than any idiot yapping on the phone. Didn't really want to make me throw myself or the baby off the plane, but I was quite happy I didn't have to deal with that every other hour of the day.

In flight the cabin air pressure is reduced as the plane goes up in altitude, to an equivalent altitude of about 9,000 feet when the airplane is at cruising altitude. This reduces stress on the airframe, by about 5-ish PSI on every inch of the cabin outer surface.

Adults have the ability to clear their eustachian by yawning, but babies generally don't. The extra air pressure causes their ears to ache for the entire flight.

That's why babies cry during an airplane flight. Mothers don't generally have to deal with it all the time.

(I wrote the firmware for one of the popular air cabin pressurization systems currently in use.)