Planes + Mobile Phones = Hell

Up to now there have been a couple of places where you could escape the curse of the mobile phone. Underground (such as the London Tube) and in the air.

Well all this is about to change as it has now been announced that mobile phone use is to be permitted in the air. So far I have yet to hear a good word said about it.

So the idea is simple.

A base station on the plane will intercept the phone signal and then route that via a satellite link to the ground. Indeed the satellite technology is well proven and has been in use in planes for some time with at seat phones being in use for some time now so this simple extension of that is no big deal. The important thing however is that it has been proven that mobile phones will not interfere with the operation of the plane.

So technically this is all fine but just because we can do it, should we?

Well because the airlines are routing your call for you, they have just been given a new revenue stream because not only can they route your call whilst in flight but they can also charge you for it and if the current in flight call charges are anything to go by, those charges will be significant.

But there are more flaws to this whole thing.

Now people are being told that using a phone on a plane is safe. Some people will interpret this as being able to use their phone on any plane at any time. Now we already know that some UK and US budget short haul carriers have planes where mobile phones really do interfere with the planes electronics. But they now have passengers who have read that it is now safe to use their phone so will. This is a very dangerous thing indeed.

But technology aside, do we really want this?

Do you want to spend the best part of 10 hours crossing the Atlantic sat next to somebody who spends most of the trip on the phone because his paperclip business is just that important. And of course even in upper class, it is still noisy so this means people will have to raise their voices to be heard.

So now you will find yourself on the redeye with some Muppet shouting to be heard whilst you try to get some sleep.

So please, fight the cause. Lets make it clear that we don’t want this however I suspect that because this is just another way to make money, we will get it and people who are just that addicted to their phones or who think they are just that important will use it.