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#41
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![]() Joseph wrote: On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 11:38:10 -0700, DaveC wrote: Cell phone usage is restricted on all domestic commercial flights by the FAA, so the flight attendant keeps telling me. I seem to recall that this wasn't so, early in cellular history. Weren't we able to use cell phones on flights, long ago? Is cell phone usage also restricted on private jets, etc. for similar reasons? Restriction of cell phones from planes is not due to the interference to avionics, but is more of concern that it will interfere with land-based communications. When you're up at a height and you attempt to use your phone you are hitting a whole lot of cell sites as once and if lots of people did this it would make a real mess of land-based cellular service. So it's more of an FCC mandate than it is of the FAA. I thought that the base station antenna patterns pretty much ignore any signal greater than a few ( maybe ~10 ) degrees above the horizon. Graham |
#42
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![]() Brian Case wrote: Actually it could work very well, and I have seen this proposal from several different sources. The Idea is to install a low power cell phone tower into the airliner. Well, it would work well, but not if they actually used the cellular frequencies (AMPS). If they installed a PCS processor in the plane, modern PCS phones would communicate with it and not fall back on the AMPS frequencies. George Patterson If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have been looking for it. |
#43
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![]() Brian Case wrote: Actually it could work very well, and I have seen this proposal from several different sources. The Idea is to install a low power cell phone tower into the airliner. Well, it would work well, but not if they actually used the cellular frequencies (AMPS). If they installed a PCS processor in the plane, modern PCS phones would communicate with it and not fall back on the AMPS frequencies. George Patterson If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have been looking for it. |
#44
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![]() Pooh Bear wrote: The origin of the ban was due to concerns about cellphone transmissions interfering with onboard avionics. The origin of the ban on cellphone usage at altitude was to prevent phones from hitting multiple receivers which were using the same frequency. The designers of the AMPS system counted on being able to have many "cells" use the same frequency set because they were far apart. Put the phone in the air, and several of these stations would receive the transmissions from the call. The origin of the FAA ban on electronic devices is as you say, but it is not unique to cell phones. George Patterson If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have been looking for it. |
#45
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![]() Pooh Bear wrote: The origin of the ban was due to concerns about cellphone transmissions interfering with onboard avionics. The origin of the ban on cellphone usage at altitude was to prevent phones from hitting multiple receivers which were using the same frequency. The designers of the AMPS system counted on being able to have many "cells" use the same frequency set because they were far apart. Put the phone in the air, and several of these stations would receive the transmissions from the call. The origin of the FAA ban on electronic devices is as you say, but it is not unique to cell phones. George Patterson If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have been looking for it. |
#46
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![]() "Pooh Bear" wrote in message ... DaveC wrote: Cell phone usage is restricted on all domestic commercial flights by the FAA, so the flight attendant keeps telling me. I seem to recall that this wasn't so, early in cellular history. Weren't we able to use cell phones on flights, long ago? Is cell phone usage also restricted on private jets, etc. for similar reasons? So my question... what is the technical reason for restriction of cell phone us on commercial flights? Is this reason valid, technically? Or is it simply an excuse to force anyone who needs to make a call to use the airline's on-board phones (and pay their outrageous rates)? The origin of the ban was due to concerns about cellphone transmissions interfering with onboard avionics. This is more likely to be a concern with older a/c. There is no hard data that I know of that substantiates the concern. There is some anecdotal evidence of interference though. Everyone's got a conspiracy theory. Here's another: The ban on cellular phones is kept alive by the book publishing industry. Some in the evil cabal may actually have the best intentions: Trying to get cell phone addicts to shut the phuque up and try reading something for a change. |
#47
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![]() "Pooh Bear" wrote in message ... DaveC wrote: Cell phone usage is restricted on all domestic commercial flights by the FAA, so the flight attendant keeps telling me. I seem to recall that this wasn't so, early in cellular history. Weren't we able to use cell phones on flights, long ago? Is cell phone usage also restricted on private jets, etc. for similar reasons? So my question... what is the technical reason for restriction of cell phone us on commercial flights? Is this reason valid, technically? Or is it simply an excuse to force anyone who needs to make a call to use the airline's on-board phones (and pay their outrageous rates)? The origin of the ban was due to concerns about cellphone transmissions interfering with onboard avionics. This is more likely to be a concern with older a/c. There is no hard data that I know of that substantiates the concern. There is some anecdotal evidence of interference though. Everyone's got a conspiracy theory. Here's another: The ban on cellular phones is kept alive by the book publishing industry. Some in the evil cabal may actually have the best intentions: Trying to get cell phone addicts to shut the phuque up and try reading something for a change. |
#48
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Pooh Bear wrote:
The origin of the ban was due to concerns about cellphone transmissions interfering with onboard avionics. This is more likely to be a concern with older a/c. There is no hard data that I know of that substantiates the concern. There is some anecdotal evidence of interference though. Sorry, there are two issues. The FAA has it's own concerns about ANY electronic devices. There's not hard and fast info on a lot of these devices and the FAA has gotten more restrictive over time. However, the AMPS regs specifically prohibit it without specifying the reason. It would seem unlikely that a prohibition against airborn use however has anything to do with air navigation because NOTHING ELSE the FCC regulates really addresses that issue. As another poster has mentioned, cellphones don't work well at altitude. Wrong. AMPS / Analog cell phones, the ones the regulatory applies to, work just fine from altitude. Actually too well. That was demonstrated on 9/11. However some of the digital (PCS, for example) services, don't work at all airborne (but they are not prohibited by regulation either). |
#49
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G.R. Patterson III wrote:
Brian Case wrote: Actually it could work very well, and I have seen this proposal from several different sources. The Idea is to install a low power cell phone tower into the airliner. Well, it would work well, but not if they actually used the cellular frequencies (AMPS). If they installed a PCS processor in the plane, modern PCS phones would communicate with it and not fall back on the AMPS frequencies. It would be a real can of worms. If everybody had a GSM phone in the US it might be doable. But every carrier these days tends to market a multimode phone that bounces between CDMA, old style TDMA, analog AMPS, GSM, and a couple of proprietary schemes like iDEN. It's going to have to be a "only [insert carrier here]" phones work onboard United's flights. |
#50
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It would be a real can of worms
The real answer is for the cell carriers to make deals with Airphone, so that one could use Airphone units already installed on the airplane, and be billed by ones cell carrier, at ones local rates. Jose -- (for Email, make the obvious changes in my address) |
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