In-flight Cell Phones
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JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Everywhere you look and everywhere you go these days, people are using cell phones. Right now, air travelers can only use their cells phones before their flights take off, but that could soon change.
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Air France launched a commercial trial of an onboard cell phone service, but in a limited fashion that avoids a controversial aspect.Travelers on certain Air France planes on European routes can send and receive short messages and, provided their phones support Internet access, send and receive e-mails.Initially, travelers won&#39;t be able to make or receive voice calls. That limitation skirts an important issue: whether cell phone talkers will annoy nearby passengers.However, in about three months, Air France does plan to allow voice calls, but said it will regulate the service &quot;to maintain passengers&#39; comfort and well-being.&quot; It did not explain how it might do that.Onboard calls and messages are routed through a small cellular base station inside the plane. From there, messages are transmitted over satellite to the ground and then on to the telephone network. The service is supplied by OnAir, a company part owned by airplane maker Airbus.To use their phones, passengers must dial as if they&#39;re making an international call. Air France did not say how much each message would cost for users but said the price is comparable to traditional mobile phone use.The planes come equipped with a new illuminated sign that instructs passengers when to keep their phones off. Travelers can send and receive messages only when the plane rises above 10,000 feet.Tips for using the service will be explained on a leaflet in seat pockets, Air France said. In addition, users will be able to fill out a survey about their experiences using it. After six months, Air France will consider whether to launch the service on all of its flights.Airlines and regulators worldwide have been considering onboard cell phone use for years. Some regulators, including the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, have banned mobile phone use on airplanes. The European Union, however, has approved the idea, and various national regulators there have begun to allow it. Airlines in other regions, like the Australian operator Qantas, are also conducting more limited tests of the service.JetBlue, Yahoo, and Research In Motion recently launched a service on one airplane in the U.S. that allows users to send and receive e-mail from BlackBerry phones, Wi-Fi smartphones, and laptops. However, the service uses an onboard Wi-Fi network instead of cellular phone technology.
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European plane maker Airbus SAS has successfully completed the first in-flight trial of mobile phones and infrastructure equipment based on GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technology, the company said Wednesday.
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(InfoWorld) - One provider's planned in-flight Wi-Fi and voice services may arrive a bit later than expected, but U.S. business users should keep their eyes open for possible good news, too: competition. AC BidCo LLC won a U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auction earlier this year for 3MHz of radio spectrum to be used for in-flight communications services. The company's affiliate, AirCell Inc., said Wednesday its offer of Wi-Fi hotspots and other services on airliners should get off the ground commercially in early 2008. That's later than the forecast it gave in June, when it said commercial service would go live in 2007. AirCell is working to complete the FCC licensing process and expects to get its license, for which it bid US$31.3 million, in the next 30 days, according to a company statement. The company changed its forecast just to give it more breathing room and may still go live in late 2007, said Tom Myers, director of marketing. Despite a brave effort by The Boeing Co.'s Connexion by Boeing unit, which said last month it would shut down after failing to attract enough users, personal in-flight communication has had a bumpy ride. For more than 20 years, Verizon Communications Inc. offered its Airfone service, which uses wired phones in seatbacks, but that expensive service wasn't widely used and last month was discontinued on airlines. In 2004, the FCC gave Verizon a non-renewable five-year license and moved to auction off the 4MHz radio spectrum that had been used for Airfone's air-to-ground links. AC BidCo got 3MHz of the spectrum, while JetBlue Airways Corp. subsidiary LiveTV LLC got 1MHz. The companies expect other North American countries to make similar spectrum changes in the next few years that will allow them to expand across the continent. AirCell plans to set up 802.11b/g access points in planes for Internet access that will look to passengers like DSL (digital subscriber line) broadband, Myers said. They could even make VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) calls if an airline allowed it, though AirCell can shut down that capability at an airline's request. The company will use EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) third-generation cellular technology to link the plane to base stations on the ground. Lower equipment costs and lower weight will allow for a service priced significantly below Connexion, Myers said. AirCell would like to offer cellular data services as well, but those await more regulatory changes, he said. LiveTV currently offers TV, satellite radio and other services on a variety of airlines. It is focused on using its spectrum for low-cost or free services featuring entertainment, on regional airlines, according to Scott Easterling, director of sales and marketing at LiveTV. The company has paid for its license and expects to go live in the fourth quarter of 2007. The narrowness of LiveTV's 1MHz licensed band -- which cost it about $7 million -- wouldn't allow many passengers to simultaneously use a regular Wi-Fi broadband service, so that would probably carry a premium price if offered, Easterling said. But there may be ways for travelers to keep on top of business for free, such as through e-mail, he said. "We can give away a connectivity experience that would be very acceptable to people," Easterling said.
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The FCC says it's inclined to let Web surfers go wireless on airplanes. Yippee! But they might allow in-flight cell phone use, too. Oh.
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Passengers will soon be able to use their own cell phones on commercial airliners, under a deal signed Tuesday by European aeronautics giant Airbus and a Geneva-based technology firm.
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Airline travelers might be able to use their mobile phones and other wireless devices in the air under a proposal put forward by US communications regulators on Wednesday to ease the current ban.
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New CDMA-GSM phones are hitting the market. Are they a niche device for business travelers or a bombshell set to rattle the wireless industry?
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Federal regulators have proposed allowing cell phones to be used on airplanes, and took steps toward bringing high-speed wireless Internet connections to passengers&#39; seats.
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Sitting at the airport, you pull out a laptop or personal digital assistant and watch TV, delivered through Wi-Fi. Perhaps you'll grab an MP3 player instead, but rather than listen to downloaded tunes, you check out Internet radio. Or maybe you'll just make a call but thanks to the headset into which you are speaking, the person at the other end can make out your voice and not the blur of jet engines taking off at the same time.
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For road warriors who don't need a new phone, but could use some slick connectivity while they're traveling, Computerworld's Seth Weintraub has an idea: Get an iPod Touch. He even hacked his to make it even more useful.
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Frequent Fliers on Finnair will be get flight info and seat assigments as text messages on their cells. Once they reply, they are checked in.
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The US Federal Communications Commission has approved a plan to allow airlines to offer in-flight wireless data service, although it may be some time before such service becomes commercially available.
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One of the most frequent complaints voiced by air travelers over the past decade or so has been having to comply with the instruction to &quot;make sure your mobile phones are turned off&quot; before liftoff.
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It's been years since Boeing tried for lift-off with its Connexion service. Yet here we are still today, with barely a hint of airborne Wi-Fi.Photos: Putting Wi-Fi in the sky
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A new option for air travelers in North America may soon be a &#36;10-&#36;12 portable entertainment system stocked with movies, music videos and online news.
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InfoWorld - European aircraft manufacturer Airbus SAS plans to include in its new Superjumbo A380 planes an optional voice and data system that can allow passengers to use their mobile devices in flight. The service, including onboard mobile telephony and Internet access for passengers, will be offered through the OnAir joint venture to airline companies purchasing the A380. The system could be fitted on other models from Airbus as well as on planes from U.S. rival Boeing. The service should become commercially available in 2006, Airbus and OnAir said.