"I'm on the plane"
 

I appreciate SLF topic but I was expecting crew comment on OfCom clearing the way for pax use of mobile phones above 3,000m
1. In-flight problem -100+ amateur reporters reporting live to media
2. Rapid depressurisation dive - reach for phone or O2 mask
3. Will the No Smoking light become the No Mobile light

I suppose some Lo-Co's will charge extra for using mobile phones or provision of 'quiet' seats

If interference not a problem I would accept pax SMS or Internet connection for pax cabin but please ban mobile voice communications during flight.

Will flight crew be allowed hands-free or mobiles banned off-stand? :rolleyes:

Ever tried to use a cell phone above 10000 feet ? Not much signal happening - trust me I've tried. As far as cell phone or oxygen mask ? - well if you can't make the decision then maybe you should be deprived of your oxygen ? You too could make the next Darwin awards.

"I'm on the Plane"
 

Carpenters use "planes", speed boats get "on the plane". Aviators and their passengers travel in "aeroplanes", or if you prefer, "aircraft". :ok:

Unfortunately they will work with this new system. I can hear the phone police now! :eek:

I have a gadget that I use in classrooms at the school I teach in Thailand. It's a simple device that nullifies mobile phone signals within a 50-60 foot radius. They can be purchased quite inexpensively on the Internet. Mine works off the mains but you can buy battery operated versions and some of them are even disguised as mobile phones so no-one will know its you that has created peace and quiet in the cabin.
Might I suggest that all seasoned travellers buy one now before demand grows and prices start increasing.
The alternative of course is to ask a cabin attendant for a glass of water then snatch the offending mobile from the moron using it and drop it into the glass - job done :ok:

Great! A mobile phone Jammer

And some folk had a theory about the 777 in London being affected by the PM's security enroute to Heathrow:uhoh:

J:E

So what's changed?
 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.../11/wair11.xml

It seems to me that the signals given off by mobile phones in 2001 are no different to those given off today. If they were dangerous enough then what has changed to make them 'safe' now?
Or were the Air Accident Investigators back then totally mistaken?
Also, read the other links in the story. What about the man who was imprisoned for a year because he insisted on using his phone during a flight from Madrid to Manchester? Can he now sue the establishment for wrongful imprisonment? And then there is the CAA quote in 1999 that 'the use of mobile phones will never be allowed'.
It's the same old story. Greed takes precedence.
PS. The more I think about it the more I like the 'glass of water' solution. Who gets accused of air rage then? Me asking for a glass of water or the moron screaming about his/her neutralised mobile phone?

phone jammer
 

Xeque, spot on! :ok:

The lo-co I work for were talking about this during the aviation security training I did. Couldn't "would be" terrorists find it nice and convenient to be able to co-ordinate events on the ground and in the air at the same time? Still, at least flight and cabin crew can't take liquids on board anymore. Makes all the difference. Perhaps the "mobile phones off" check will go and PM can have a chat on the taxi out or something.

Xeque Jam ?
 

Xeque :

Not that I don't disagree with the sentiment ! However the article about the new service deals with the spectrum issue, or at least acknowledges it and says they will deal with it.

I am sure that any cell phone jammer would reak havoc with aircraft systems !!

I have used a cell phone from the cockpit lots (of a freighter !) and the only problem was that the call could not be charged to me as it hit 20 or so towers !

Cheers

FG

What OFCOM are proposing is the licensing of an on-board system so that SLF mobiles will talk to a box in the cabin which will then use a satellite system to pipe the signals to the usual phone network. This means that the signal transmitted will be much lower power than if it was trying to access the ground based cells.
OFCOM also acknowledge that EASA. CAA. etc. have not bought into this (yet) and that the certification authorities will have the final word, as they should.
They also said that there should be no need to raise charges, OK - tell that to the LoCos!

VnV...

I'm on Vodafone - will that make a difference? :hmm:

From the report on Radio 4 my understanding is, as VnV2178B states, that effectively the radio mast is placed within the aircraft so the mobiles only have to communicate a short distant, and therefore operate at low power. It said that this way all the signals would be kept within the plane, hence frying all the passengers! :p

However the guy from Ofcom was also asked about the irritation factor and he did have the decency to say that using the phone for email or texting shouldn't annoy neighbouring passengers. Presumably implying that the ability for passengers to use mobiles is going to be hellishly irritating to those that don;t want to use them!

If they can work safely I'd like to see either an area within the aircraft dedicated for making calls, or for calls to be barred and only email/textx to be used with the phone on silent to stop annoying beeps!

I imagine there will be an isolator switch for the transmitter, much like the switch we have for the IFE. I'll just switch it off on my flights.
Can't wait to see all the SLF holding their phones next to the window to try to get a signal:E

It'll fry passengers a lot less than holding a transmit antenna to the side of their heads, which many will do!

(Well, they'll do it once, they might not do it again once they've seen the bill.)

(The jammers, of course, are somewhat illegal in most places.)

Illegal to jam broadcasts in the UK, including mobiles, so the jammer option - much as I like it - is a non-starter.

Yes but....
 

Sounds good but which network will be provided?

If its not my network my phone may try to log into a normal terrestrial network at maximum power...

What failsafe is included so that when the cell controller in the aircraft goes U/S to stop a large number of SLF phones all trying to re-register with a terrestrial network at the same time (at maximum power) :}

The jammer is actually a serious issue. Although illegal in many states including the UK, they are easily available via the internet. They are high power devices (somewhat greater than a mobile phone) and certainly do have the potential of causing interference to aircraft systems.
I can imagine pax carrying one to ensure peace on a flight, and causing chaos, but hopefully it would be spotted during security checks.

Hello...I'm over the ocean...no its rubbish...
 

Oh dear god no…

Long haul, getting any sleep is hard enough. I cant wait to be awoken by the chime of god knows how many txts, missed calls, messaging services etc. Perhaps we could get Dom Jolly to do a sketch for us.

Why do we feel the need to be nailed to our phones 24/7. Why do we need to be contacted over the Atlantic, Pacific, (insert continent of choice ) ? I understand some travellers may require it for business use, but I suspect the majority don’t really need it.

I feel like its going to happen regardless, I just hope that some kind of common sense will prevail, but then again….

In response to the Phone or Oxygen mask...you know some chav with a tiny IQ will grab their phone, pass out, then turn around and say they were on an O2 contract and try suing them.

Seriously though, this will inevitably cause arguments in the cabin and make cabin crews jobs harder. How do you make someone turn off their phone for TO/LDG and then allow them to turn on their phone in flight? Hopefully there will be something in the cockpit that will allow us (the crew) to turn on/off the base station. At least we would then control the connection.