Mobile Phones Take To The Skies October 19, 2007
Read more Gizmodo UK , Mobile Devices , Mobile phones , Smartphones , Technology , Wireless
Using mobile phones on planes is not really an option, especially not with those pre-flight warnings:
“The use of mobile phones is prohibited on this flight as they interfere with the aircraft's electronics and will certainly send us all hurtling to our deaths, screaming and crying and hugging strangers for a few brief moments before we explode into a fiery ball of flame and tortured metal.”
OK, maybe not those exact words, but you get it. However, there is hope for mobile use on planes without killing your fellow passengers. Telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has now set out proposals to allow UK aircraft let people use mobile phones on European flights, thanks to a new approach.
It involves placing a base station on-board which connects to passengers’ phones once the plane has reached 3,000 metres, so as not to interfere with terrestrial phone networks. The base station will bounce the calls from satellites back to the user’s own mobile phone network and they will be billed as normal - just look for the extra zeroes. The service could be up an running as soon as next year.
It will be limited to 2G phones to start and yes, calls to Gran from 50,000-feet will cost that bit more than usual.-Martin Lynch
[Ofcom]
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
Comments
As I understand it, mobile phones make absolutely no difference to a plane's electronics. If they did, how hard would it be for terrorists to use a higher powered transmitter to take down a plane? It is just scare story nonsense.
The real problem is that the planes are moving so fast that it creates all sorts of problems with mobile pohone masts and satellites.