2 comments by 2 or more people

1. Steve Rumsby

   If mobile phones are capable of transmitting signals between 1.8 miles (3km) and 6.6 miles

   In this context, they won’t be. There’ll be a micro-cell on the plane that the phones will talk to, so they’ll actually be transmitting at very low power. Which is why the harmful pilot killer rays aren’t a problem. They aren’t strong enough to get through the bulkhead to the pilots – they are just harmful passenger killer rays instead:-)

   The call is relayed from the plane to the ground by other means. Presumably the same means by which the built-in phones work. Which brings us to:

   Isn’t the real reason for the ban on mobile phones supposed to be that it encourages people to use the airline’s ridiculously expensive built-in phones?

   Because you are talking to the micro-cell on the plane, you’ll be roaming, and be charged whatever the airlines decide. I somehow suspect it won’t be much cheaper than the built-in phones.

   Also, why only above 3000m?

   Because if there is a problem, that gives the pilots enough time to get something sorted (“everybody turn off their phones now“) and still not crash into the ground.

   At least, the above is my current understanding of how this will work. I may be wrong…

   07 Apr 2008, 10:42

2. There’ll be a micro-cell on the plane that the phones will talk to

   That makes much more sense.

   you’ll be roaming

   Ah, of course.

   That gives the pilots enough time to get something sorted

   That’s what I thought, too.

   07 Apr 2008, 13:40