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Europe closer to allowing in-flight cellphone use

by Nilay Patel, posted Oct 18th 2007 at 12:40PM


The dream of being able to annoy everyone around you at 30,000 feet inched ever closer to reality today, with EU regulators recommending that member states approve a plan to allow in-flight cell phone use. Although previous studies have shown cell radios may interfere with in-flight nav systems, the new plan involves mounting a satellite-linked "pico cell" in the passenger compartment, which will allow pilots and flight crew to selectively enable cell services like voice and SMS. Unfortunately, the system only supports 2G connections, but if its successful, officials say it can be upgraded to 3G. Rollout is dependent on both individual countries and airlines approving the tech, but hopefully we'll be chatting away soon.

[Via Switched]

Filed under: Misc

Tags: in flight, in flight calling, in-flight, in-flight cell phone, In-flightCellPhone, InFlight, InFlightCalling

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