In-flight mobile calls a step nearer?

Communications experts are considering ways to allow mobile phones to be used on aircraft – and technological solutions are already reported to be proving a success. According to the BBC news website, the Federal Communications Commission is currently looking at ways to allow in-flight calls – in order to reduce the price of calls currently permitted using special, pre-installed telephones and also to find ways to permit normal mobile phones to be used. The website reports that American Airlines has already trialled a “picocell”, a miniature receiver, with a two-hour flight on which passengers were encouraged to use their mobiles. The system does not interfere with other electronic aircraft systems and does not rely on contact with land, so can be used over the sea. But, as the BBC’s Stephen Evans points out, though developing the technology may be “the easy bit”, “it will be much harder to devise rules to reconcile the desires of those who want to chat with those who want to sit in silence”. He adds: “A plane load of businessmen chattering away at 35,000 feet is not an attractive thought.” Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd