In the last two weeks, I’ve found myself on two round-trip flights around the country. No matter what airline I was on, all of them mentioned an FCC regulation against cell phones and wireless devices, and asked that they be turned completely off for the duration of the flight.
If you’ve ever had a cell phone near a set of speakers just before an incoming call, you’ve heard the interference they produce. Imagine 200 phones interfering with the planes controls, and it’s not hard to see why the FCC has that rule. Besides, hurdling through the air at hundreds of miles an hour while you’re tens of thousands of feet up, what kind of reception do you expect to get anyway?
But we live in an age where we can’t even put down our phone to order a cheeseburger at the drive-thru, and can’t get through a movie without texting someone, so of course someone has stepped in to fill the gap and develop a technology to let us talk from takeoff to landing.
Ryanair, a discount airline ticket company from the UK, has recently been researching ways to get cell phone reception at 35,000 feet. Using cell broadcasting technology called “picocells” (which Ryanair claims has no interference issues with the plane’s equipment) Ryanair is predicting a 2008 launch for in-flight calling. Wireless internet connections are also in the works.
After spending more than half a day in the air within a month, I couldn’t be more horrified at this development. It’s bad enough to be stuffed into small seats with no leg room, next to a guy who is drinking too much, the baby behind you crying the whole time, and the lucky person who got the window seat closing the shade. As if the claustrophobia of the situation isn’t all the irritation one can take, now I’m trapped inside the giant metal tube listening to 199 other people yakking away about their inane lives for hours as well. And there’s no way out.
In other words, I’m not worried about the technical interference. It’s the noise interference from the other passengers I dread.
Many flights have pay phones built into the seats for emergency calls. If you absolutely need to talk to someone, that option is often available. Stick to carriers that provide that service. Flying is the one time I don’t have to hear your annoying Jay-Z ringtone, or listen to obliviously loud conversations about your friends and their STDs.
Read a book. Sleep. Watch the in-flight movie. Read SkyMall. Just keep your cell phone turned off.