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Developers are working on the possibility of being able to use mobile phones on planes within the European Union. Mobile phone use is currently banned as it has been said to interfere with air bound communication. A study carried out in 2003 concluded that mobile phone signals had the power to send signals off up to five degrees from its true location. Plans hope that they can create safe phone signals that will allow people to make calls from over 3,000 metres while a plane is in flight in Europe Technology is currently being developed which will permit the use of mobile phones without the risk to aircraft systems. This will be a hard accomplishment to overcome as regulators, designers and mobile phone operators all have to be involved to check the many features involved with making this service available. Consultants in Europe have been called into check the technology needed in ordered to make the calls not only possible but safe. Individual airline companies would need to be involved, as they would need to decide if they actually want this service upon their flight. Media regulators Ofcam are also getting involved to address the cost of the service, to check if airlines and mobile phone operators are setting fair prices. The proposed system will be an on board base station that will communicate with the handsets. It will be low powered which creates a network area big enough to encompass the plane cabin. It will travel through a satellite then will connect with a mobile network on the ground. Billing for this will be added on to existing mobile network bills. This seems like a great way for business people to travel throughout Europe without missing out on communication time. It does seem like a risky process with a lot of development and assessments to take place to check it is a safe procedure for air flights.
Staff editor, Section, October 2007 |
