Voip Blog
Mobile Phones On Planes
Saturday, May 31, 2008
There has been a lot of controversy around the topic of using mobile phones on an airplane. The objections raised include interference with aviation equipment, problems with the terrestrial mobile phone networks when using your handset in the air, and simply annoying your fellow passengers. Here's the skinny on each of these points:
Interference With Aviation Equipment: Aviation equipment is generally well-shielded, making the possibility of interference small. Despite bans, people either accidentally or purposefully leave their phones on during flights with no ill effects. I am unaware of any flight disasters that can be attributed to someone using a mobile device in-flight.
Terrestrial Phone Networks: One issue with using your mobile phone in-flight is that the phone can see way more towers than usual. The mobile phone networks were designed to handle handoffs with handsets moving at highway speeds, not airplanes at subsonic speeds. Due to the distance between the ground and the towers, the phone will have to work that much harder to get signal to those towers as well, which does increase the risk of interference and decrease overall battery life.
Annoying Your Fellow Passengers: There's no question that yakking on the phone in-flight is likely to annoy your fellow passengers to no end. This takes a rather voice-centric view of the mobile phone into account. While I personally wouldn't want to talk to someone on the phone while in the air, I would love it if SMS and data service were available. None of these things would be disturbing to other passengers in the least and would give me the functionality I really want.
Of course, the downside of allowing data service is: you can do voice over IP using that data connection! A friend of mine did just that when Lufthansa offered WiFi Internet service over their flights. With airlines in the U.S. also considering adding WiFi service to their flights, the issue of telephony on planes is going to have to be dealt with one way or the other, whether we like it or not.
