Coming soon:chatting on the cell phone during flights
More international airlines are offering cell services during the flights, and it will not be long before cell calls become a routine..
The Cathay Pacific has now announced that starting from 2012 it will fit all the planes with a cell phone system for the mobile phones and the Virgin Atlantic announced the same plan for the next few months. For now, the Federal Communications Commission does not allow United States airline companies to follow this example and legislation bans in-flight mobile phone conversations. But it is only a only a matter of time before the Americans will be able to talk on their cell phones from the sky. This all started in 2008, when the Emirates Airlines became the first to let passengers make cell phone calls from the airplanes and the executive director for Flyers Rights, Kate Hanni, says that it is not a bad thing and is different from phone use on the ground.
Some of the passengers are bothered by this because they say that they are stuck in the seat and that they can not move to another part of the plane to avoid hearing the conversations or to get some rest. Kate Hanni says that airplane conversations are a lot shorter and that it is not possible for more than five people talking at the same time in the same plane because of the bandwidth used for cell phones, which does not permit many calls. And there is also a plan to disable cell phone use during the night.
Splendid! There really was a need for such a thing because when you are on a business trip, there is often the need to speak on a cell phone if you have a 10 hour flight. I’ve experienced many inconveniences for not being able to talk on the phone while flying and I would love to be able to use my cell phone during a flight. Let’s pray that many airlines will allow this and that this will be put into practice in the nearby future.