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April 19, 2008

U.S., European Views of In-Flight Cell Calls: No! Oui?

By Glenn Fleishman

My former hometown’s paper writes about local politician working on bill to make double sure voice calls can’t be made over the U.S.: Three House Transportation Committee members, including long-time rep Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), are pushing Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace: HANG UP. Cute. Congresscritters are well aware of the vagaries of flight. For most representatives, who are typically not wealthy, it’s routine to travel coach as often as weekly back to the hinterlands for fundraising, constituent services, and family visits. DeFazio et al would like to ensure that the current regulatory situation that prevents in-flight calls would be more fully spelled out as a statutory ban.

Meanwhile, our European cousins are experiencing turbulence in the test of mobile calls on an Air France plane: The New York Times reporter found that calling is sketchy. Outgoing calls took a few tries; incoming didn’t seem to work. Despite OnAir’s promotion that 12 simultaneous calls can be supported under their system, only 6 are in this test configuration (12 will be available later). BlackBerry users couldn’t get email. The cost is about €2-3 per minute, which is a bit higher than the US$2.50 originally estimated.

Posted by Glennf at April 19, 2008 8:02 PM

Categories: Air Travel

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