WirelessCabin: Use Your Mobile Phone on Airplanes 296
securitas writes "What if didn't have to turn off your mobile phone when you travel by air? eWEEK's Matthew Broersma reports on a European Commission project to enable mobile phone use on airplanes. The technology works by creating short-range 'picocells' that force transmission output power to drop to 1/1000th of normal, reducing electronic interference, then using a satellite uplink. The WirelessCabin project members include the German Aerospace Centre, Siemens, Ericsson and Airbus. Initial trials will use 'GSM, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections' but will add CDMA and 3G standards. WirelessCabin is already making a picocell with CDMA2000. The first demonstrations are scheduled for this summer on Lufthansa long-haul flights with the A340-600 jet."
The whole no phones in planes (Score:5, Insightful)
just what we've been waiting for... (Score:2, Insightful)
Is the danger real? (Score:4, Insightful)
Could prevent another 9-11 (Score:2, Insightful)
Shit. (Score:5, Insightful)
The RULE on all airplane flights should be, "Sit down, don't smoke, don't talk, shut the fuck up and read a book because hundreds of strangers need to get along so be fucking polite, please." That should be written on every ticket.
I can't stand how self-indulgent most people are, and how important they want to think they are, and can't go without a cell phone or a deep conversation about Cosmo magazine for a few hours. Grow the fuck up and learn to sit still and read something quietly on a place. Seriously.
This is technology being used in a very BAD way IMO.
Pretty expensive uplink costs (Score:5, Insightful)
$20.00 / 6 hours = $3.33/hour
or
$30.00 / 6+ hours = ~$5.00/hour on East Coast US to Europe flights down to 1.50 an hour or so for those West Coast US to Australia flights.
& I thought 24.95 for a day's access at a conference was exorbitant!
But that's my quiet time (Score:3, Insightful)
Just relax... Read a book. Listen to some music (softly).
Moronic Title (Score:0, Insightful)
Nice.
Re:I never turn it off (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Sky high rates? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would roaming between cells on an aircraft be any different then roaming between cells while driving? Do I kick people off their calls if I switch to a new tower when I drive behind a building? Somehow I doubt it -- the cell networks are designed with roaming in mind.
When the only time you can get 3 hours of peace is on a flight from X to Y and you have to sit next to Joe on the phone to his secretary talking about the meeting he has five days from now (which he could call and talk to her about tomorrow) you might care.
That's a physiological problem not a technical problem. My question was is there any technical reason why cell phones won't work from airplanes? They obviously do work -- some of the people on the hijacked planes during 9/11 called out on them -- yet the FAA won't let you use them because they might 'interfere'. Is this founded or just paranoia?
Re:Shit. (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously. No matter how good you think your social skills are, or how impeccably perspicacious your banter may seem to you, I may not (and probably don't) want to hear it on a plane while I'm trying to read/sleep/watch a movie. See, we're stuck close together, I can't just move away from you like I might in another situation.
So yeah, I have to agree with the grandparent poster -- you really should keep conversations to a minimum, and at a very low volume, when flying. It's polite (i.e., a good social skill).
I'm not sure what the jab about being the other posters child was supposed to mean, but I for one would hate to share a plane with you if you think "good social skills" on a plane is anything other than shutting the fuck up as much as possible.
Re:Sky high rates? (Score:3, Insightful)
After the initial handshake the sending power is reduced to a minimum needed to keep contact to the corresponding cell, and in most situations thats 1/10th or so of the peak transmission power.
So while the initial handshake will cause interferences (most likely short bursts of noice, in 1 second periods), later the power is to little.
Re:The whole no phones in planes (Score:3, Insightful)
Probably because the airlines can still get a piece of the action with this scheme. They can do a deal with the phone companies to split an outrageously priced "roaming" fee for these calls. People would be much more likely to use their own phones than those crappy phones in the backs of seats. (I can't remember ever seeing anyone actually use one of those things.)
Even if they only charged half or less of the unbelievable current air phone price, the total call volume would go way up, and so would the airlines' revenues from phone services.
Re:Happens to a friend of mine too.. (Score:3, Insightful)
That'd be my guess.
IM access (Score:3, Insightful)
Brilliant! Why would I need to use a phone with some rediculous per-minute charge if I can chat with 5 people at once while in the air without disturbing other passengers nonetheless..
Email (POP3/SMTP) access was $20.
GAAH! this will be awful (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why? (Score:3, Insightful)
I am always amazed at the type-A people who have their finger poised over the power button when the wheels hit the ground so they can get on the phone to talk business.
I'm not talking about the worried flyers who call their wife/mom/kids/whoever to say they've arrived safely, but the big deal makers suffering cell phone withdrawal after 30 minutes disconnection. These are usually the same people who have packed for a four day trip in oversized carry-on luggage because checking a bag would take too much time and they jump to their feet as the plane taxis up to the gate and grab their bags as if that is going to get them off the damned plane any quicker.
Sorry, had to rant (and I'm flying this weekend and already dreading it).
Re:Sky high rates? (Score:2, Insightful)
You say that as if it would be peaceful without cell phones! Hah! The little kid behind you doesn't care whether or not he/she could drive the most steel-nerved adult crazy within the course of a couple hours (or maybe it's the parent who refuses to do nothing to calm the child), he/she'll do it anyway!
My point is, airplanes are NOT theaters, no matter how much the people who need sleep wish it could be. The funniest thing I have ever heard in my life (and I hear it a lot) is, "I don't have to sleep now, I'll sleep on the plane."
Re:I never turn it off (Score:5, Insightful)
And then, just as the plane approaches for landing in a tricky crosswind, your phone comes within range of the radio tower, and starts receiving a bunch of SMS messages (the 'welcome to such-and-such network' ones, and yes, phones do transmit as well when receiving messages), and screws up the avionics. But now, there is very margin for error and that twitch might well cause a crash.
Not following these safety regulations on aircraft is not only illegal, it's utterly stupid.
Re:Sky high rates? (Score:1, Insightful)
Hams and RF engineers regularly hang around transmitters that put out hundreds of watts, with no ill effects.
When I key up my ham radio, the stereo in the living room starts screeching full volume, and the TV upstairs dies. Annoying? Yes. Dangerous. No.
Re:Is the danger real? (Score:2, Insightful)
Most people don't understand the statistics involved when it comes to expected norms of commercial airplane safety. There are almost 10,000,000 commerical airplane flights a year so if unlimited cell phone crashed only 1 in 10,000,000 flights, one plane every year would be lost. Even if it's 1 in a 100,000,000, that's one plane every ten years. I just don't think it's a worth plane crash with potentially hundreds of passengers dead just so people can talk for cheap on their cell phones.
Look here for statistical information on airplane safety [boeing.com]
And besides, airplanes are one of few respites in the modern world from constant cell phone ringing. If phones were found to be safe on planes, every flight would become a cacophony of really irrating ring tones. Forget ever being able to sleep on a plane again.
Trains, planes (Score:3, Insightful)
hi! guess what! my cell phone works on the train! but it never seems to work quite right unless i yell into it!!
The old smokin days (Score:1, Insightful)
When they actually allowed you to light up a cigarette on a plane they usually had a section at the back of the A/C for smokers.
With any luck we could see the rear of the A/C reserved for cell-users (or was that cell-losers).