One of the few remaining bastions of cellphone-restricted peace-and-quiet (aside from annoying “loud-talkers” and the ever incessant crying baby) may soon fall to EU regulators. You see, unlike in the US, mobile phone use may soon be allowed on airborne flights over European Union member countries. EU regulators have approved a plan for mobile phone use at cruising altitude through the use of a “pico-cell” on the airplane itself.
The pico-cell is basically a mini-cellular base station that routes wireless signals from passengers to land-based towers. The pilot can control voice and SMS data transmission, so (we hope) the pilot could threaten to cut off wireless-service if any passengers get too obnoxious with their jabbering (as much as we love hearing what new hair color our neighbor in seat 27A would like to have, it can get annoying). Only 2G communication is supported as of now, but the system could easily be updated to handle 3G communications if this whole thing goes smoothly.
But, before Europeans can enjoy strangers’ cellphone conversations, EU member states and airlines must ratify the plan. The ball’s in the people’s court now. We’ll have to wait and see just how badly everyone wants to talk on their mobile phone.
[Via: BBC]