FAA Seconds FCC On Grounding In-Flight Mobile Phone Calls
from the but-what-about-voip? dept
Over the weekend, a story out of the UK began to get some buzz, when an American FAA representative supposedly told a British newspaper that the FAA will not approve in-flight mobile phone calls after the agency received a ton of complaints when it publicly began considering the shift in policy. Of course, this is somewhat meaningless, because the FCC had already said no to the change in policy, and both agencies would likely need to agree before any change went into effect. So, for those of you (and we know there are lots of you) who were terrified by the idea that you might get stuck sitting next to someone jabbering away into a mobile phone for a cross-continent flight... rest easy. Well, rest easy until you realize that voice is just a form of data, and it's only a matter of time until internet access in the sky means the person sitting next you will be jabbering away via Skype for a cross-continent flight no matter what gov't agencies have to say about mobile phones in the sky.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: airplanes, in-flight voice, mobile phones, voip
Companies: faa, fcc
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
As opposed to...?
Now, how is that different, really, than an overheard cell phone conversation? If the concern is the bothersome noise, then chatting women and babbling babies are just as annoying. Except, unlike with mobile phones, one can't as easily complain about cheerful people talking cheerfully, or babies making noise.
It seems the only real difference is the greater opportunity for conversation that mobile phones provide. If it's just a question of degree... I don't see what anyone has to complain about. Certainly, I would hope that neither of those two women I mentioned would be among the mobile phone complainers.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: As opposed to...?
And also whether the flight is ontime, whether I have to sit sweltering on the tarmac, whether they lose my bags, and whether they serve coke or pepsi
But you know.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I don't think so...
Right now airlines have complete control over the behavior of the passengers (i.e., making scantily clad passengers cover up with a blanket if you haven't been reading the news). All a stewardess/steward has to say to you is quit using your computer and if you do not comply you will be taken into custody the minute the plan touches ground.
That is just one of the reasons I hate flying. Sometimes the stewardesses/stewards are completely unreasonable. I was flying one time and the ride was pretty bumpy so my breathing was a little erratic and I was gripping the seat so hard my knuckles were white. The steward told me to calm down because I was annoying the other passengers. He even went so far as to offer a sedative 30 minutes before we landed. Now I wasn't screaming or crying (or as far as I could see frightening other passengers), so I told him to leave me alone. I did get a talking to when I landed by security saying I needed to comply with any stewards request if the safety of other passengers was of concern. That's flying for you though.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I don't think so...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: I don't think so...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
thankyou god
and certainly they would be on a cell phone if they could...
if i dont like your skype chat i starting vomiting and drooling...
for 5 hours of babies and women chatting, an Ambien or two and a vodka tonic makes it disappear...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Go ahead
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Off Topic
Triple linking to yourself in a single post I think is rather absurd.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Off Topic
Yeah, they're spam and they've been deleted. On a side note, it's a pretty useless spamming technique, as all links are set to "nofollow"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Reason is simple. I'd rather have that hot chick doomed to spend next few hours rubbibg against me talk to me, than to her boyfriend/husband/whatever. I might fail, but at least I tried (and sometimes succeeded)!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I guess depending on which 1.2% that is disrupted, that doesn't seem to matter. That being said, I guess its ok on planes, and depending on who is sitting next to me, I would rather them talk on the cell phone than me.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
FAA has good reason to ban cell phones on planes
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: FAA has good reason to ban cell phones on plan
There are solutions to this, mainly in the form of picocells attached the planes, that route all of the cell phone call info.
The FCC took that into account and *still* said they weren't going to allow it. So, it's got nothing to do with hitting a bunch of towers.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: FAA has good reason to ban cell phones on plan
The whole idea of cellular technology is that your phone locks onto ONE cell-site until it's ready to move to the next. It may poll several sites in the area... but once you are on a call, you are on ONE cell-site.
I've heard that a phone being handed off from site to site as quickly as it would in a airplane can cause some trouble with the network... but I don't know if those claims have actually been substantiated.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]