Allow Cell Phones During Flights?

[ClydeR]

The DOT on Thursday announced its “proposal to require airlines and ticket agents to disclose in advance to consumers if the carrier operating their flight allows passengers to make voice calls using mobile wireless devices.”

Translation? The DOT is leaving the decision in the hands of the respective airlines until it makes a formal, final ruling – which, some aviation observers say, could still be a year or more away.

More... (http://www.travelpulse.com/news/airlines/dot-proposes-paving-the-way-for-in-flight-phone-calls.html)

Instead of being bored and lonely on flights, under this new rule you'll have lots of other people's phone conversations to listen to.

[Maerit]

Provided you can actually get a signal when flying. Since most flights are not flying over major cities, or below 10,000 feet, and often over the ocean - being able to make a call on the plane isn't really dependent on whether the airline allows you to use your phone.

[Androidpk]

Provided you can actually get a signal when flying. Since most flights are not flying over major cities, or below 10,000 feet, and often over the ocean - being able to make a call on the plane isn't really dependent on whether the airline allows you to use your phone.

VOIP

[Archigeek]

VOIP

What he said. More satellites are being launched for this purpose in an effort to make it even more common than it is today. In 10 years, the cell phone may be largely replaced by the sat phone, or rather they'll be one and the same. Meanwhile, airlines are happy to charge you for satellite service while you're on their plane.

[Maerit]

VOIP

The point is that your average ticketed passenger isn't going to have the ability to just whip out a cell phone and start talking on their cellular network like they would in the car while cruising at 30,000+ feet in a jet. You can already pay for in-flight wifi that lets you use Skype and other technology which would otherwise be blocked without internet access, and that hasn't spawned a plague of passengers conversing obnoxiously (yet) while flying. This would be more for coordinating during landing and take-off, which people already abuse despite being told to keep their phones off until the seat belt sign is turned off, so not really a big difference IMO.

[Methais]

VOIP

I bought an hour of wifi when I was on a United flight in July.

It worked for about 10 minutes.

[Maerit]

I bought an hour of wifi when I was on a United flight in July.

It worked for about 10 minutes.

That sucks. For like $8.00 I was able to get Wifi on Southwest (duration of the flight ~2 hours), and played Gemstone during this year's EG for the prime merchant hours without any connection interruption. It was great because I needed to get a few services, but had to travel on the first weekend of EG. The bigger reason was that about 4 or 5 really nice raffles all drew during my flight, and I would not have been eligible to win (despite not winning) had I been offline at those times.