Cellphones in Flight Face Technical and Social Hurdles
By ERIC A. TAUB
The New York Times
Published: September 2, 2004
BUSINESS travelers who think there are not enough hours in the day, take note: in two years there may be a few more at your disposal.
In 2006 the nation's commercial airliners may begin to allow passengers to make cellphone calls and connect to the Internet throughout a flight. No longer will passengers have to cram in their last cellular calls before takeoff. Instead, they will be able to use standard mobile phones to make and receive calls while in flight.
Technical and social issues must still be worked out. The airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Communications Commission must be assured that cellphones will not interfere with navigation or communications equipment. And the airlines also must devise ways to avoid conflict between cell yellers and passengers looking for a quiet trip.
While the airlines wait for government approval, Lufthansa currently offers Internet access on some international flights. As a foreign carrier, it is not subject to federal restrictions.
"A circle of mobility defines how people want to work and live today," said Monte Ford, senior vice president of American Airlines. In July, the airline conducted a test flight in which passengers could place calls throughout the United States without interfering with the plane's operations.
"Cellphones and laptops are used in cars and offices, but the missing piece has been the airplane," Mr. Ford said. "But it's critically important that this technology be utilized in a proper way."
Airline passengers have been able to make calls during flights for years, using telephones built into seat backs. But high cost and poor connection quality have discouraged their use.
Until now, there have been concerns that cellphone use during flight could disrupt cell networks or interfere with the plane's navigation systems. The F.C.C., which has jurisdiction over ground communication, forbids the use of cellphones in flight out of concern that passengers calling from the air could overwhelm the nation's system of cell towers. That policy is currently under review and is likely to be modified this October, according to Lauren Patrich, an F.C.C. spokeswoman.
For its part, the F.A.A., which governs in-flight communications, recommends that airlines forbid the use of any device - including cellphones and pagers - that transmits signals, because of the risk of interference.
Two newly proposed solutions will allow passengers to use their own cellphones to place calls in flight in a way that their makers say addresses both concerns. Unlike the current seat-back phone system, airlines will not have to pay for costly interior wiring. Instead, a small cell tower, known as a picocell, will be installed inside the cabin. Cellphone signals will be picked up by that cell, and then, depending on the system, relayed either first to a satellite or directly to the ground.
AirCell of Louisville, Colo., a large provider of in-flight communications services, has proposed a system that would bypass existing cellphone towers on the ground and direct calls instead to a separate grouping of receivers installed throughout the country. Equipment inside the plane would effectively create a cabin-wide hot spot handling voice and Internet communications.
The AirCell system can handle any of the three digital phone standards in use by the American carriers: C.D.M.A., T.D.M.A. or G.S.M. Signals from each phone would be received by the plane's picocell, and then translated into one digital signal that would be sent to one of AirCell's terrestrial receivers. (To keep costs down, those receivers could be situated next to ones operated by cellphone carriers.) The signals would be separated and sent to the customer's carrier for routing and billing.
The system is designed to be able to transmit signals a distance of 50,000 feet, and hand them off from one ground receiver to the next while a caller is moving at 600 miles per hour. Because of the height at which planes fly, only 150 cell sites will be needed to provide coverage across the continental United States, according to Jack Blumenstein, AirCell's chief executive officer.
