Re: American Airlines response

From: Peter (prathman_at_comcast.net)
Date: 01/16/05 

Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 17:09:12 -0800

H.W. Stockman wrote:

> Perhaps that is an even greater fear of the airlines; if they allow personal
> GPS in flight, sooner or later, the FAA will allow cell phones. The 5 hours
> on a plane could go from boring to miserable.

Better get your earplugs ready; things are definitely moving in that
direction:
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/12/16/fcc.airtravelers.ap/

AFAIK, the FAA doesn't have a real firm rule today against cell phones.
FAR 91.21 leaves it up to the airlines and there is an FAA advisory that
discourages approval of devices that intentionally transmit (like cell
phones), but no outright ban. OTOH, the FCC rules for the original
cellular band do forbid airborne use to avoid congestion and
interference problems caused by having a single handset communicating
with a large number of ground stations. But the corresponding FCC rules
for PCS phones in the 1900 MHz band have no such restriction.

There was a recent cellular trial conducted on an airliner where a
miniature base station was located in the plane. Passenger cell phones
therefore communicated directly with this base station and the calls
were then routed to a terrestrial hub station over a dedicated wireless
link. The base station on the plane would instruct all the handsets to
operate on minimum power so as to minimize the chance of interference
with cellular communications on the ground in the area under the plane.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: American Airlines response
    ... > GPS in flight, sooner or later, the FAA will allow cell phones. ... > on a plane could go from boring to miserable. ... Although I tend to agree that, if cell phones are allowed, it's going to ... calls are $0.10/minute assuming you pay a fixed rate of something like ...
    (sci.geo.satellite-nav)
  • Re: Block Cell Phones In Theaters?
    ... >They don't interfere with the systems on an airplane, either, but the ... >FAA still tells everyone to turn their cell phones off unless the ... >plane is at the gate. ... The FAA actually leaves it up ...
    (rec.autos.driving)
  • Re: GPS trackers - a potential weapon from hell
    ... Cell phones only have to see a single base station 5 to 10 miles away ... perfectly adequate calls taking place from aircraft, ... estimates only yesterday of an average of 3-4 calls per flight over the US. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: hmmm interesting topic...
    ... The danger cell phones cause planes was always extremely exagerrated. ... has nothing to do with danger to the plane. ... "hey, ...
    (rec.sport.football.college)
  • Re: GPS trackers - a potential weapon from hell
    ... Cell phones only have to see a single base station 5 to 10 miles away ... comparitively little on LEO and not resurging or even surging. ... station antenna paterns were not in favor of it. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)