An excerpt from the following article in Aviation International News:
Investigators Hope Recovered Flight Data and Cockpit Voice Recorders Shed More Light on AF447 Crash: AINonline
"Meanwhile, the secretary general of the international civil aviation organization (ICAO), Raymond Benjamin, last week restated the goal of increasing the endurance of underwater locator beacons (ULBs) from 30 to 90 days and increase the range of the ULB signal from one to four nautical miles with existing and mature technology. The technology needed to develop systems to eject floatable recorders upon impact also already exists. In the longer term, ICAO hopes to see aircraft transmitting flight data on a continuous or event-triggered basis."