No more airplane mode? EU to allow calls on flights
bbc.com
bbc.com
Being able to temporarily “unplug the cable” from a wireless device is a valuable feature, even if it’s no longer required by regulation.
apart from that there are also voice group chats which on some apps start with a ring at least if i am explicitly invited. (though that usually doesn't happen when i am asleep)
Yes I could probably figure out how to selective silence the alerts for these various thing based on time of day and type of message etc. but life is too short for that, I just want one easy way to shut everything up.
They changed it a few years ago so that they would automatically turn on again once you are at a different location, and if you wanted it permanent off, you can do so via settings app.
I found this to be an improvement in user experience because I would often turn off wifi in the control panel when I was on a weak wifi connection to force the phone to use the mobile network, and then I would forget to turn it back on when I went inside again.
This change made it so I did not have to remember to turn wifi on again.
However, I did not read anything about toggling in control panel not actually turning the radios off.
Personally, I think that the tracking hype has seen its peak.
But airplane mode means that wifi is still enabled/possible for quite some time.
You can learn more about Airplane mode on Apple’s website:
I'm just saying this here because I thought for quite some time that airplane mode means no radio signals from the phone.
Or even better, failing to have consistant location data is a violation of warranty!
/s
It's been around for over a decade, and it isn't particularly annoying.
In fact, planes have had seatback phones since the '90s (you swiped your credit card to use it) and that also worked quite well.
I know at least a cellular iPad Mini has done this to me when I didn't want it to. (I was doing an experiment for a year where I try to keep Apple from knowing my location, via Wi-Fi VPN routers and no location services. FWIW, the experiment failed because of surveillance features like this.)
But please feel free to let customers browse TikTok with their headphones on.
If my experience with trains is anything to go by then I can guarantee you that there will be at least one person doing it without the headphones and volume set to 100%.
Although this might be because the people who plan ahead to download content are more likely to remember headphones.
A notable difference between economy and front cabin is the passengers. Mostly good: pets and kids are uncannily well behaved. Sometimes bad, e.g. more arguing.
My kids were constantly losing wallets, money, credit cards, keys, drivers licenses, etc. but none of them ever lost a phone. I expect headphones will go the same way soon.
For older folks, yeah. I often leave the house without my phone, because I go for hours at a time not using it.
The correct answer is to not book second class tickets, ever, always book "first class quiet zone", and inform offending co-travellers about societally unacceptable behaviour, friendly at first, then increasingly passive-aggressive. There are always some people who are incorrigible ... but Bose N700 noise cancelling headphones also help.
1st class tends to be rather expensive. Depending on where you live, even 2nd class can be quite expensive.
Anyone know if there is a project or startup working on this?
People let their kids watch stuff on the iPad at full blast. At least with the screens headphones HAD to be used...
Some people just don't realize there are other people around them.
Honestly I don't think there is reason to treat airplane any different than train or bus, actually the longest journeys I've made in my life were not on plane, but on bus or train, both raking 30+ hours, while my longest direct flight was like 12 hours.
After all nobody stops you from using headphones, if you find ambient noise annoying. I much more prefer open floorplan noise over screaming baby and obviously nobody is going to ban babies/children from flying.
If you prefer office noise over screaming babies, that’s one thing. They aren’t mutually exclusive however. You’ll just end up with both.
I don’t trust people’s decency enough and would prefer enforced policies banning voice calls for these reasons.
At least in the US, there's two different rules relevant to in-flight cell phone use:
- 14 CFR 91.21 [1] - FAA rule prohibiting use of any electronics during air-carrier/instrument flight which the aircraft operator hasn't approved, in order to prevent interference with the avionics.
- 47 CFR 22.925 [2] - FCC rule prohibiting airborne use of cellular telephones specifically, in order to prevent phones from talking to too many towers at once and stressing the cellular network. (As altitude increases the radio horizon increases, so at altitude your phone can "see" significantly more towers. The cellular network is built on the principle that a phone can only see a small handful of towers at a time, enabling frequency reuse.) This rule technically only applies in the "Cellular Radiotelephone Service" band, which is one of several different bands a cellphone can use, and it's one of the older ones — but you have no idea which band your cellphone is using at any given time.
The FCC has talked about updating 47 CFR 22.925 and/or harmonizing the rules between cellular bands, but who knows if they'll ever get around to it. [3]
FWIW, as a private pilot, I have first-hand experience with interference when somebody forgot to switch their cell phone off. It was difficult to hear ATC over the "click-click-BUZZ" of GSM interference through the headset. Granted, this was a small airplane, so passengers were much closer to the avionics... but it's not just a hypothetical.
Cell phones tend not to work very well (if at all) above about 5,000 feet anyway, since cell tower antennas are directional and pointed towards the ground.
[1]: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-F...
[2]: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-B...
[3]: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-04-288A1.pdf
As I understand it (and someone more versed in cellular backends can correct me), the reason why 2G GSM interference was so noticeable was because the TDMA-based radio would switch on and off at an frequency within the audible range, and once inductively coupled with a nearby audio cable would be strong enough to play sound through speakers.
That doesn't mean newer cellular radios don't interfere. They can, just not audibly. Newer CDMA-style radio modes (used on LTE/5G) aren't switching on and off like the TDMA ones did, but they're still emitting the same amount of power.
In particular, I'd be most worried about the aircraft's navigation radio. The technology used for ILS/VOR navigation is technologically simple, and easy to interfere with. A car driving past the wrong area of the airport can disrupt the signal. (There's "ILS Critical Areas" on airport taxiways that are marked off for this very reason, and ground controllers will prevent aircraft or vehicles from entering those areas when there's an aircraft on an ILS approach.)
a) Cell phones not in airplane mode are supposedly a safety concern for airplanes.
b) Tap water I bring from home is a supposedly a safety concern for airplanes.
c) I'm asked to turn my cell phone off or into airplace mode during take off but nobody really cares.
d) I'm strip searched for tap water before entering the gate.
Now, I don't think the actual reasoning passes a cost benefit test, but criticizing it on grounds that have nothing to do with the real reason isn't helpful.
Yes, you are right, it was maybe a stupid phrasing, I'm particularly annoyed by it and I should have given a better example (but I disagree that you cannot distinguish tap water from bomb ingredients. Of course you can. And I did even talk about the stupid 100ml limit, which is apparently the threshold you need for bombs. And they will lift the limit soonish, because apparently the counter-terrorists have won).
Anyway, let's take a better example: I'm not allowed to bring weapons in the cabin because they are a safety risk. This is an understandable risk, they will enforce it (not by asking but by searching), and if you still end up with a weapon in the plane and disturb the flight, you will for sure end up in jail.
If your cell phone rings loudly during take off, you will politely be asked to turn it off. If it rings silently, nobody will ever care.
- If somebody has a weapon in an aircraft and is intent on using it, it's unsafe, and there's not a whole lot that can be done. You're all trapped in a sealed pressure vessel, and law enforcement isn't coming until you're on the ground. Your only mitigation strategy is to hope the crew and passengers can fend for themselves.
- If you lose ground-based navigation during landing, it's unsafe, but there are several mitigation strategies. You're not going to land at that moment anymore, but the pilot can abort the landing, switch over to GPS, and fly the missed approach to get back up to altitude. At this point there's time to troubleshoot... They can make an announcement asking passengers to switch off electronics. They could fly an RNAV approach. If the weather's good, they could land visually. Worst case they can fly to a military base and make a ASR approach (I don't think this has ever happened with an airliner).
There's different levels of unsafe. You have to consider what the specific risks of each are.
Sorry, but this sounds all very hypothetical. This this was a real problem there should be other procedures by now.
Here's a story of an interference event where they went missed:
https://www.quora.com/On-my-last-flight-before-landing-the-p...
A quick search through the NASA ASRS database shows several reports where the ILS or VOR receiver was behaving erratically, sometimes during descent. In some cases the crew was able to land visually, in others the crew crew had enough time to ask passengers to switch off phones and the problem went away.
See: ACN 695049, 321746, 307150, 277118, 200510, 161347, 364464, 467979
https://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/search/database.html
Most of these are older reports, take that as you will. It's entirely possible LTE doesn't interfere with the ILS/VOR. I honestly don't know.
Note also that this only lists reports made through NASAs reporting system. There are other reporting systems used by commercial operators (i.e. ASAP) that I can't easily query.
If I expand the search to include 5G interference, I get 97 recent results. That's a different issue, but at least worth mentioning to show that interference is still a general concern. I'm not going to list all of those, but you're welcome to query for them at the above link.
> What would happen if the cell phone was in the luggage in the cargo bay?
Then they would use one of the other contingency options I already mentioned to land visually or using other sensors. Still not a "safe" situation if this happens when you're close to the ground. If this were to happen during a Cat III approach, it would be extremely bad.
My carrier Telstra charges $3/MB still now for AeroMobile. Madness. I wonder if anyone has a non stupid rate with them? It’s also 75c/SMS and $5/minute for calls.
Or was it sarcasm without the /s?
And no, noise cancelling headphones are not good enough to drown out conversation at this close a distance. And plenty of people get upgraded to first on parents miles such that first class carriage is no guarantee. Hopefully the market will sort this out and offer ‘quiet flights’ or fare classes.
As for headphones, there's no reason they couldn't be used for the listening half of the call.
On another, psychology studies found "When trying to concentrate on a test, students found that overhearing someone talking on the phone was more intrusive than a two-sided conversation."
It's important that everyone has some situational awareness should something happen.
I’m reading a book with noise-cancelling headphones on or asleep during landing and take-off. Most people, particularly frequent flyers, are similarly distracted.
I was quite shocked at it when an Air Canada flight attendant asked me to remove mine. I now always follow this practice, it’s a reasonable safety precaution.
I can assure you that this won't be the case.
Imagine that percentage of people loudly yapping on the phone no matter the situation inside a metal tube filled with another annoyed people..
Unless they’re talking about the aircraft itself providing the 5G network and that uses a probably-prohibitively expensive airline data plan.
I doubt Flight Mode would disappear from phones, it’s useful for situations where you want to conserve battery like camping.
Because you are a telco and exploiting your captive market is your business model. The same reason why an out-of-plan international call can cost dollars per minute unless you happen to have the specific, convoluted combination of plans/add-ons/bolt-ons in which case it magically becomes free.
Who wouldn't want the opportunity to silently rip people off for several bucks because their phone accidentally connected to the in-flight cell and dared to transmit a few kilobytes of data?
It's hardly impossible. Mobile data works off line of sight. The cells are much larger for radios pointed at the sky.
(The airplane's micro-cell will then have a backhaul over satellite or dedicated air-ground radio, just like in-flight wifi. Yes, there are handoffs there, but it's not via the normal cellular network - which is an important distinction.)
This also means the cellphone's radio is transmitting at minimum power, since it's right next to the antenna for the micro-cell.
Cell phone providers will negotiate with airlines to get their "micro-cell" installed and connected to the existing internet uplink. Once this is fairly ubiquitous, cell phones will be "whispering" to the in-airplane tower, and hence won't bother the cell towers on the ground. A cell provider's goal is to provide access in as many places as possible with as little work required by you as possible - this is one step better than inflight wifi from that regard.
Some voice call ban is very low on list of my priorities what should rather be banned in flight - reclining seats and screaming babies would sure beat voice calls.