You Can Finally Use Your Cell Phone During a Flight
There are a lot of people, businessmen or simply cell phone addicts, who could not take their hands off their mobile phones. If you are one these people, then you would be delighted to know that you can finally user your mobile phone during a flight. Air France, together with Mobile OnAir, now offer in-flight mobile phone service. This is actually a world's first!
In the first place, why do we need to turn off our cell phones during a flight? Well, you cannot possibly get a signal if you are 10,000 ft off ground anyway. But if your phone were turned on, it would continuously look for a signal, which can actually drain your battery. But the main reason behind this restriction is that during landings and take offs, using your cell phones can actually cause communication interference. Remember the nagging sound when you put your cell phones right next to a computer or a speaker? Pilots can hear the same thing that can cause miscommunication between pilots and traffic controllers.
If you are boarding an Airfrance, you are in luck. You can finally use your mobile phone to send and receive text and multimedia messages. You can also send and receive e-mails with your phone. The in-flight mobile service is actually a two-part trial. After the first three months of the trial, AirFrance would allow passengers to receive and make calls during the flight. The use of mobile phones in the aircraft would be subjected to regulations and policies to maintain the comfort of traveling of other passengers on board. The trial would run for a full six months and passengers would be asked to raise their comments and feedback on the in-flight mobile service. This would allow AirFrance to determine whether or not they would continue to offer the said service.
AirFrance teamed up with Mobile OnAir, the company that is responsible in creating and developing a mobile telephony system inside the aircraft. The system is certified by the European Aviation Safety Authority. The said organization verifies that the in-flight mobile service does not create communication interference. Radio navigation instruments would remain unobstructed even with the presence of cell phone signals. The Mobile OnAir system is activated and ready for usage when an aircraft reaches 10,000 feet.
Mobile OnAir system consists of a small cellular network within the aircraft itself. A modem is used to transmit data and voice calls to a satellite. The satellite then routes the data and voice signals to a ground station then back to the user's carrier network. Orange, Bouygues Telecom and SFR are three of the mobile phone service carriers who are currently working on an agreement with Mobile OnAir and AirFrance.
