FCC Says No to Mobile Phones on Airplane

GayBliss writes "CNN is reporting that the FCC has decided to keep a rule in place that would ban mobile phone usage on airplanes. The FAA has a similar ban, but for different reasons. 'In an order released Tuesday, the agency noted that "insufficient technical information" was available on whether airborne cell phone calls would jam networks below. [...]Unlike the Federal Aviation Administration, which bans the use of cell phones and other portable electronic devices for fear they will interfere with navigational and communications systems, the FCC's concern is interference with other cell phone signals on the ground.'"

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Forget about the technical reasons

[jaymaxSEA]

assuming the technical reasons are even valid. How about banning cell phones in the air as a safety issue? Rapidly deteriorating service in the air, smaller seats, little bits of terrible food if at all, lost luggage, delays, rude employees, rude travelers, overbooked flights and then someone wants the ability to chat on their phone for the entirety of the flight. Can you say air rage?

As a significant business traveler

[blantonl]

.. I cannot tell you how elated I am to hear this news.

Nothing amuses me more than the high-end muscle-man salesman that strolls through an airport terminal with a bluetooth device in his hear, extolling the virtues of his latest deal that he closed, how drunk he got the night before, and where he was heading next. All the while strolling like there is something up his but, and his hands are waving in the air like he's swatting flies or something buzzing around his head - maybe it's his arrogance.

But while it is amazing, it is also irritating, and the thought of having to deal with that type of behavior AFTER the door is shut scares the living hell out of me. The only people that might benefit from something like this rule change would be Bose - as I'm sure they would sell 1000's of additional Acoustic Noise Canceling Headphones.

Furthermore, being that you would be 6 miles up in the sky, in an aluminum shielded tube, I cannot even imagine that you would get good coverage from within the airplane. I'm willing to bet that maintaining a call even for just a few minutes would be a hassle. Imagine that beefy salesman screaming into his bluetooth headset "can you hear me... hold one, let me get up and find a better signal" - all the while he's walking up and down the aisle, "Can you hear me NOW?" and holding the phone up to an airplane window in the galley.

Man it would be a disaster. He would either get his ass kicked by someone, or lose the deal because he thought he could hold the con call from the airplane.

Thank You FCC. you did everyone a favor.

Does anyone allow this?

[east coast]

So it's not going to happen in the US. Have other countries let flyers use their phones on a plane? Have there been marked results for this?

Re:Insufficient technical information

[saider]

Transferring cells happens much more frequently, and if you have a group of, say, 20-30 people all hopping towers at the same time, it is bound to cause problems. The software and hardware in the towers is more or less expecting smooth and random distribution of incoming requests for service.

The system simply was not designed with this in mind.

Re:Hooray!

[josecanuc]

The last time I was in an airport, about 5 months ago, I was waiting in the terminal with all the other folks, etc.

There was a lady there who was either an insurance agent or in some insurance- or heath-related business.

She was helping someone file some report or claim and happily read out, very loudly, the names, birthdays, and social security numbers of an entire family of five, complete with repeats to make sure the other person got the numbers correctly.

I considered writing it all down and showing the lady, saying, "Thanks, I'm sure I'll be able to get a few grand out of this information!"

She had no sense that her voice was filling the entire terminal (2 gates, tiny airport) or that the information she was giving out might be of any use to anyone else...

Re:Cellphones were used during the 9/11 hijackings

[garcia]

This isn't scientific evidence of mobile phone interruption from planes, but just about everytime a plane would fly over my apartment while on (low) approach to MSP my own calls would drop. It only happened as I heard the planes overhead -- never any other time.

Now, I know that people (like my father) refuse to turn their phones off while in flight because "the FCC doesn't know their heads from third base" (as he likes to state so frequently) but for me, while living there, it sucked.

I have planes on approach to MSP where I live now but I rarely use my mobile for voice calls so I don't notice the dropped calls as much and/or because they are at a much higher altitude and aren't flying as frequently over that route, I don't notice the problem.

Re:Cellphones were used during the 9/11 hijackings

[CheeseTroll]

It isn't just being in range of several towers at once, it's the rapid switching from tower to tower as the airplane cruises at 500+ mph.

Re:Hooray!

[drinkypoo]

The problem in an airplane (particularly in coach class) is that you are sitting in forced proximity to the offending person.

As long as they're talking at the top of their lungs, just interrupt them continually.

If they're talking in a normal tone of voice, what's the problem?

Re:Hooray!

[packeteer]

One out of every 100 people does not have the proper connection to their brain's pre-frontal cortex. This means they are psychologically incapable of caring for others. This happens in certain conditions like autism but it also exists in the normal healthy population at an alarming rate. 1% of people just can't care, its just not possible, when you take that into consideration it puts a lot of experiances with rude people into perspective. The vast majority of these people are normal people who act properly around others, most of them have learned social rules to behave nicely towards others but sometimes when it comes to them making their own choice about how to treat others they msot likely will not care at all.

Re:Two words: Wifi VoIP

[Radon360]

Well, it would depend on the relay design of such a system. If the plane interacts directly with ground-based stations, it will probably work fine. However, a couple of proposals that I saw called for uplinking to satellites, geostationary or otherwise. Both can create a varying amount of delay. While VoIP could technically still work with a sat link, the delay through it could become particularly annoying...especially if the link were through a geostationary bird, rather than ones in low earth orbit.

Re:Hooray!

[shalla]

Well, yes. It is. It's generally considered rude to ignore people in the same space as you to talk to people who aren't there, especially at a volume that disturbs them. If you're in a conversation with a second person, you're interacting with your environment, and so long as it's at a reasonable level and not inane, it's not considered rude. No one is going to expect you to ignore the person you're traveling with.

I also find if you make one quick call, keep it quiet, and don't blather, no one cares. On the other hand, if I can hear every word in, say, Barnes & Noble from 5 aisles away, you're too damn loud.

Of course, that's true if you're with a friend too. A good many people could use some lessons in voice moderation and courtesy in public anyways. Then again, I also think people shouldn't take their children out in public until they can behave. Apparently that makes me a nasty person, according to a few parents I've known.

Heeee. And the Slashdot bot-avoidance word is "bitches." I can't imagine how that applies to me... >.> .>

Regulations or no...

[ptomblin]

When I'm flying my own airplane, I can't seem to get a signal anywhere above 3,000 feet anyway. I wish I could, because the Treo's web browser would be useful for checking weather radar web sites.

Cosine Effect

[Radon360]

Draw a right triangle. One right side is 5 miles, this half the usual distance between cell towers (rural, though oftentimes less). The other right side is 5 to 10 miles, this is the altitude of the plane. This triangle would represent your worst case scenario.

If you are directly overhead of a cell tower (perpendicular - best case). Your effective velocity towards the tower nears zero, and the shift is minimal. At worst case, you're 45 off, creating making your effective velocity 0.7 x speed of the aircraft.

Okay, speculation on my part. At present time, I don't believe that handset data speeds are high enough for airplane speeds to create a serious problem. With future revisions of EV-DO [wikipedia.org], et al, having higher data rates, it may become a technical hurdle.

FAA "ban" is a bit misleading

[Anonymous Coward]

The FAA bans all portable electronic devices, but provides an exclusion for portable voice recorders, hearing aids, heart pacemakers, electric shavers, and "any other portable electronic device that the [airline] has determined will not cause interference with the navigation or communication system of the aircraft on which it is to be used." - 14CFR121.306

The airlines can allow cell phone use under the current FAA regulations if they determine that it doesn't interfere. There is no explicit ban of cell phones by the FAA. The FCC ban is a different story.

Re:Neo-luddite rejoice!

[InsertCleverUsername]

> Its sad to see people take of the mantle of a luddite, dismiss
> logic (cell phones are safe on planes), and applaud these
> decisions because they dont like overhearing a conversation or two.

I agree; if there was even the remote possibility that a cell phone was dangerous to flight operations they would force you to check them at the gate. I suspect the real problem is that it makes billing difficult for AirPhone(c) and for your cellular provider when you're moving from tower to tower so quickly.

On the other hand, silence is golden. I love gadgets as much as the next guy but please, other people are morons, for the most part. Why wouldn't I applaud an arbitrary rule to prevent them from blathering while I try to watch movies, urinate, and sit confined in a really uncomfortable chair for five hours? You'd think societal probations alone would prevent this tacky behavior, but I hear it all the time. If they need the freedom to talk all the time, everywhere, perhaps we should have the freedom to use jamming devices? :)
Nothing Luddite about that --just a modern method of cutting off a dullard.

Re:Hooray!

[Anonymous Coward]

I think mine beats both those stories: someone I know made $35,000 in one day based on insider information he gleaned from an overheard cell phone conversation. Some loudmouth exec spilled the beans, they were either going to beat or miss earnings by a large amount, I can't remember which, and this guy was able to figure out who he worked for based on looking what the guy was working on on the flight. Yes, it was quite a gamble, and the guy was a daytrader anyways so he had enough liquidity to do this, but still..

Re:Hooray! technocrats, applaud banning of tech?

[symonty]

This is so ludacris, americans have been so brain washed over the years about cell phones being an élitist tool that they are living in a fools paradise.

All international airlines will have cell phone service within 5 years, and the USA carriers will be left, as the whole of the USA has been by the late 90's cell phone technology wilderness.

Have you ever wondered, how cell phones became such a nuscience to americans but not to any one else, and why countries like sweeden now control the cell phone market.

Between ignoring GSM , and AT&T's worries about the new product eroding there core business, Americans have been left in a third world country for cell phones awareness.

It is wierd that us bunch of technocrats, applaud banning of technology?

Re:unfortunately...

[fm6]

No, it's not. The psychology of talking to somebody at a remote location is completely different from that of talking to somebody who's sitting right next to you.