USA Today reports that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is recommending the agency drop its plan to lift the ban on cellphone use on aircraft. We went on record as against it, cellphones being disruptive to the environment of the aircraft. Cellphones are disruptive enough when everyone uses their normal voice to talk on them in public…but with the loud environment of an aircraft, they would have to practically scream.
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We believe that aircraft to ground communications be limited to data communications only. People can IM and type their way across the sky.
However, the reason the FCC may drop it has little to do with the public. The FCC was concerned about calls in the air clogging hundreds of cell towers at once. That problem was expected to be alleviated by sending the signals to an airplane antenna, which would relay the calls over a special spectrum reserved for air to ground calls. Test showed it would still call cause interference, although the CEO of AirCell, one of the two companies which bought frequencies for the service, says these problems can be worked on.
In a survey in 2005, 68& of respondents favored keeping the ban. As for data services, a $10-per-trip AirCell service slated to roll out by early 2008 would let passengers use Wi-Fi-equipped laptops to e-mail, surf the Web and access corporate networks. JetBlue, whose subsidiary bought the bandwidth AirCell did not, has said it may introduce an in-flight e-mail and text-messaging service later this year.
Some European airlines will be adding cellphone service sometime in the next year. This could cause the US to reconsider the issue.
