One of the last refuges from the mobile telephone may soon be destroyed by
plans to allow calls from on board aircraft.
Ofcom outlined plans yesterday for airlines to instal special base stations on
board, enabling passengers to call and send text messages using their own
mobile handsets.
Licenced aircraft would link up with mobile operators to offer the service,
with passengers billed by their phone companies as normal. However,
passengers will pay around £2 a minute for the luxury of using their phone
while airborne.
Although many planes already offer on-board phone services, passengers in
Europe are currently banned from using their own handsets.
European countries and civil aviation authorities are working jointly to
remove the ban. The restriction is in part due to fear of potential
interference with planes’ technical systems and with terrestrial mobile
networks. But consumer surveys have also raised concerns about one of the
last mobile phone-free refuges being spoilt.
In one US study, only 11 per cent of the 50,000 passengers polled said that
they wanted to listen to their neighbours’ chatter at 30,000 feet. Many
passengers surveyed said that they enjoyed being uncontactable.
The cost of using a mobile while airborne is also an issue. Although the £2
proposed by companies preparing to offer the service is cheaper than current
on-board satellite services – which typically charge around £5 a minute – it
still represents a hefty mark-up to regular calls.
Conscious of the potential for passengers to be overcharged, Ofcom said
yesterday that it would “investigate and address any complaints of excessive
charges and any other abuses of competition”.
Airlines said that demand for the services would be high. A spokesman for
Ryanair, which plans to introduce a service, said: “It is ideal for
passengers who might have had to dash to catch a flight and forgot to tell
the office something or to send a few emails. Our flights have never been
quiet – passengers can talk as much as they like.”
Air industry groups also pointed to research, highlighted by Ofcom, in which
nearly half of all international business fliers said they would prefer to
travel on airlines that allow the use of mobile phones in flight.
A spokesman for OnAir, one of several companies set up to provide the kit
necessary to enable mobiles to be used on planes, said that the higher
pricing reflected the complexity of providing such services.
The group, which already has deals with several airlines, including BMI, said
that passenger irritation would also be reduced by the control that air crew
would have over the services. “If it is an overnight flight the crew could
switch off the voice element while people are sleeping,” he said.
Mobile-free quiet zones, similar to those on trains, could also be introduced.
The Ofcom proposals are being developed jointly with other EU countries and
will cover all EU airspace.
The Civil Aviation Authority will have to approve the proposed services before
they are allowed to go ahead.
Ofcom said that it expects the service to be operational by next year.
Tell us your thoughts using the form below
Base stations on a plane?! Has anyone even considered the microwave radiation produced by scores, if not more, of phone users inside an effective metal box?!! Shouldn't we be more concerned with this as opposed to nuisance caused or ease of communication?
theo sanders, toulouse,
They should be banned on trains and boats and planes ..........and just about everywhere else. Quality of life is what counts and mobile phones are hugely intrusive and annoying. What's more, they are very probably detrimental to health in the long-term. An unpalatable, and perhaps inconvenient, truth.
Tom, Lichfield, England
Does anyone have any information on the Easyjet buyout of GB Airways? I have some of my family booked onto GB flights from Manchester to Paphos (where we will be living next year) after 30th March 2008. Can I demand a refund now to be able to rebook on other flights? Is it likely that Easyjet will open a base at Manchester?
No-one is saying anything - help!
Bill Ritson Hogg, Darlington, UK
No to airborne mobile phones ! Not only the annoyance of listening to somebody's loud "chat"; what about the safety aspect and terrorist threat? The Madrid train bombs were detonated by mobile phones.
D Bocutt, Ashford,
A recipe to stop mobile phone use on planes....
1) Keep calm
2) As the conversation starts, you begin reciting something at ever increasing volume. Choose something from classic writings or repeating the alphabet in a monotonous drone? This could become a research project engaging fellow travellers ... is a high pitched rendition more effective, a slow drawl, in different accents, a staccato performance? Does the use of performance gestures make a difference? Are erudite selections better than simple rhymes or nonsense?
3) As the mobile-phone-user gets uncomfortable with your efforts and asks you to desist (congratulations) you've the opportunity to engage in face-to-face conversation, and in true coaching-style agree a 'win-win' outcome - 'I'll keep the noise down if you will too'.
4) Smile, feel the silent applause from those seated around you who recognise your contribution to reducing global noise pollution.
nb Works on trains too, in the cafe, at the beach
John, Bristol, UK
Another recipe to reduce mobile-phone use on planes. This is a quiet one.
1) ON YOUR MARKS - have your own mobile phone readily available for action.
2) GET SET - have a postcard with 'I love YouTube' written clearly. Black marker pen is probably best on the white background.
3) GO - at the first ringing of 'de-de-dah-dah-dah', get into film-director mode, pretend to switch your phone to video mode and start recording the perpetrator's conversation. (Don't actually make a recording - not very nice!) At a suitable time flash the 'I love YouTube' card and enjoy changes in facial expression.
4) Keep 'recording' to capture the switching off moment.
5) Pretend to send the recording to YouTube.
6) Squirrel away your handset and postcard
7) Return to previous state of repose and try not to look too pleased with yourself.
Other contributions to stop mobile phones on planes (and trains) welcome.
Happy travelling.
John, Bristol, UK
NO! NO! NO!
Picture the scene as you start any move at the airport and all the "look at me I am important" types whip out their blackberries or mobile phones simply to communicate.... "I am just taxi-ing", "I have just taken off" or "I have just landed".
Wait for the headlines of air rage this causes
Tam, Edinburgh, Scotland
Is there nowhere we can get away from loud businessmen and banal chatter? Anyone wishing to use their mobile phone inflight for anything other than an extreme emergency should be asked to step outside!
Mrs E. A Taylor, Wolverhampton, England
Absolute madness. You only have to travel on a train to know what a nuisance they are.
If people were allowed to use their mobile phones on planes incidents of air rage would be bound to increase dramatically, so from a safety point of view alone it shouldn't be allowed.
L Faulkner, Leicestershire,
Mobiles on planes? NO, No, NO. It is one of the very few places where one can escape the scourge of mobile phones. Flying is not the most pleasant ways of travel when in economy and the thought of people talking on mobiles is a nightmare.
Margaret Wilson, Holmfirth, England
I don't fly very often, but the thought of having to endure a (usually) very loud one-sided conversation - with no means of escaping - fills me with dread.
Scrap the whole idea.
Barrie Cleaves, Tiverton, England
The use of mobile phones should definitely NOT be allowed on planes. I cannot imagine anything worse than having to listen to someone else's one-sided and loud (why do they always have to be so loud?) conversation. Anyone who has ever travelled on a train will know that 'quiet areas' do not work.
C A Williams, Worcestershire, England
Rail travel has already been ruined by the incessant noise of people wittering away on their mobile phones (even in the so-called "quiet carriages" where they are asked not to use them).It would be a complete disaster if the airlines were to go the same way. Air travel is stressful and unpleasant enough already. The least that the airlines can do is to protect us from nonstop loudmouth blethering. I would certainly do my best to avoid using any carrier that allowed the use of mobiles in flight.
Chris Lance, Leeds,
I am also definitely against the use of mobile phones on aircraft. Air inustry groups who state that nearly half of interviewees (of an unknown size sample) would welcome the service is in marked contrast with 11% of 50,000 in favour in the US. Of course, business travellers are a more lucrative source of income for the likes of Ryanair who will no doubt change a very mediocre flying experience into an almost unbearable one. Can you really envisage the crew telling a phone user that he can only use it some of the time? Then there is the subject of ring tones - do we really want to go there?
Lance Johnson, Yate, Bristol, South Gloucestershire
As a frequent flyer, I will boycott any airline that allows mobile forms on board aircraft for as long as I can. Allowing indescriminate use of this equipment on board is a sure fire way of increasing the security risk and ergo terrorism. Incidents of air-rage will multiply. Its bad enough having to put up with excessive drinkers on aircraft who get louder by the glass without allowing them to pass on their drunken comments to all and sundry via mobile phones. As one wit remarked, mobile phones should be allowed during the flight only on the understanding that the call be taken outside the aircraft!
Austin Orton, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, UK
i am a frequent traveller and i can't imagine anything worse. it's the one time i have peace and am left alone to read a book and not have people hassling me, calling me and generally telling me pointless things that they can deal with themselves.
not only that, i completely agree with the sentiments of Mamie....there is nothing more boring than being forced to listen to other peoples conversations, and businessmen (the primary user of such a service) have the most boring conversations of all.
no one cares about the deals you are working on and it's nice not to have to listen to you going on and on about it, even if it's just for an hour or two!!!
Ben Siegmund, Ware, Herts
Well, that's one way of increasing the incidence of air rage on flights !!! Passengers forced to sit for hours in close proximity with mobile loudmouths will surely resort to shaking them warmly by the throat when driven to desperation point. Will airlines provide "quiet" sections as they do on trains? Or perhaps the charges will be so high (please, oh please) that no sane person will use them.
Mamie, colchester,
Joe - I work in air transport and I can tell you that there is no way that anything new is ever put on planes without it being tested every which way. In fact one of the systems was given clearance by the European aviation safety guys in the summer, and that certainly doesn't happen without a lot of rigorous testing.
Charlie, London,
Mobile phones and blue tooth devices are banned in airplanes due to the risk of interference with the control systems, why after 20 years do they now feel there is n o risk without any testing.
According to the US those people in the plane which crashed into a field on 9/11 made a considerable number of calls so why do we need extra base stations?
joe, Edinburgh, Scotland