Will We Outlaw Cell Phone Use On Airplanes, Just Because Of The Obnoxious Passenger In 13D?
The FCC has just granted licenses for airborne communications services to a subsidiary of Jet Blue Airways along with a firm tied into AirCell, Inc. These two new licenses mean the end of the line for Verizon’s Airfone service, which has been a perennial money-loser and must give up the airwaves by 2010.
Exactly what kinds of airborne service we’ll get from this deal (Internet, voice, email) is not clear yet. Right now Airfone charges 69 cents a minute for domestic voice calls, plus a $3.99 connection fee. World travelers can already access the Internet on a handful of international carriers on Boeing’s Connexion service for about $10 a flight. (AirCell, one of the winners in the FCC auction, is known for providing inflight cellular technology for private and business aircraft.)
But the bigger, juicier issue yet to be decided is plain old cell phone use on airplanes. The FCC and FAA are weighing the issues, at least the technological and security issues. A decision is expected this year.
Technologically, there are concerns about cellular transmitters interfering with the avionics on the planes. Security-wise, there’s the worry about terrorists using cell phones as a tool to coordinate hijackings. (Of course, if you’re willing to hijack a plane, you probably wouldn’t obey rules about not using a cell phone in flight.)
There’s one other issue, less likely to be on the FCC and FAA’s radar screen - the psycho-social, Miss Mannersy, lifestyle issue of whether we would rather not allow cell phone use in flight because it’s a nuisance. Public Relations consultant and frequent flyer Chuck Underwood is quoted saying it will be intolerable being trapped on an airplane sitting inches away from other passengers blathering loudly and incessantly, call after call. Leading to in-flight arguments between passengers. Worse than allowing alcoholic beverages in-flight, he implies.
Have things really gotten this bad? Can we not give our fellow passengers credit for even a slight shred of humanity? Is there a compromise possible? Should we say yes to text messaging only? Declare certain sections of the plane as No Calling zones?
Can’t we all just get along? (Don’t answer, it’s a rhetorical question.)
June 25th, 2006 at 3:45 pm
[...] In a recent FCC auction for enhanced inflight wireless services, Verizon was the loser. As the parent company of the Airfone inflight phone operation, losing the auction meant Verizon would have to shut down Airfone by the year 2010. It now appears Verizon isn’t going to wait that long - Verizon says it will end its inflight commercial airline service by the end of the year. [...]
July 28th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
[...] ASiQ believes it has solved this whole flap over cell phone use on airliners. It has applied for a patent on a new concept - an onboard device (part of the airliners’ entertainment system) that provides data-only service and hooks to passengers’ cell phones via Bluetooth or cable connection. Individual cell phones wouldn’t transmit to cell sites, so this doesn’t louse up cellular networks or the avionics on airplanes. [...]