Cell Phone Use on Flights

The FCC recently decided the whole idea of cell phone use on airplanes was a no go in the United States, due to the uncertainty of whether the ground towers could handle the additional traffic. If you’ve had your fingers crossed for months waiting on the outcome of the debate, it’s time to let it go.

The problem is “The system is designed for phones to communicate with a single cell tower at a time. But a cell phone that is several miles in the air can contact many towers at once, tying up circuits in all of them.” I can see that. I would hate to have my occasionally sketchy service become more unreliable because of the increased traffic. If I wanted that kind of service, I would have bought a Cricket phone.

I very much do want email and internet access on flights, but this news is actually a relief to me. I sat beside a lady in the airport yesterday who apparently needed to talk in to her phone in a volume loud enough to wake the dead. It’s like people get on the phone and forget they’re in public. I might go in to some kind of air rage if I had to sit next to THAT for several hours.