In flight calls

[UncappedTag]

Anyone like me find it funny how for years it's been a big no no using mobiles on planes for fear of 1000's of planes nose diving into the ocean YET.........as soon as a solution to comercialise mobile phone usuage and charge £3 a minute it all goes out of the window!!

I cannot believe my next pikey flight may involve sitting next to someone on the blower chatting crap for the sake of it........"hey mum i'm calling from 33'000ft wohoo, I forgot to say it's bin day on Wednesday, please can you put the black sorry green bin out this week".

The market for making calls on a flight I would feel would be best suited to the BA's, Virgin etc etc so all the fat cats can buy and sell shares in their portfolios while participating in another 'mile high club' activity, but Pikeyair!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7899446.stm

[Nimbus]

not really... it sounds exactly up Ryanair's street.

yet another reason to avoid them like the plague.

[sleep envy]

and then they'll wonder why air rage incidents will have increased

[Orb the Impaler]

I doubt they'll appear to any extent on cheapo flights for just this reason.

Same thing goes for using mobiles in hospital. Stopping their use might be a load of bks outside of a coronary care unit etc. however can you imagine what hospitals would be like if you could use mobiles - it doesn't bear thinking about . Keep em banned!

Edit: WTF! Reading the link shows that they have. Are they mental?

Edited by Orb the Impaler on Friday 20th February 14:41

[bigdods]

Its always been on the cards. I've worked for mobile operators and they have always known it was ok to use a mobile on a plane but the old FUD factor kicked in and they got banned.

Its the price you pay for free/cheap flights. Ryanair and their ilk have to make money by selling coffee/sarnies etc, this is just a much more lucrative money spinner.

As its limited to 6 concurrent users it wont be a plane full of idiots on the phone. At the rate they are charging most of the idiots on their PAYG phones will run out of credit after a few minutes anyway. I expect that texts will be far more common and that shouldnt really bother people as much.

Oh and its Vodafone and O2 only at the moment so that will help reduce the problem in the short term.

I reckon the flight crew might have a disable switch anyway so if there are a few idiots making loud calls a flick of the switch and they are off the air.

[V8mate]

Mobile phone jammer.

Should pretty much kill everything within 30 seats in each direction.

[schmokin1]

the aircraft's navigation and flight control systems are not affected as there is a very low powered onboard base station(if that's the right description) that registers the phones and routes the calls through a dedicated R/T set (as I understand it). Phones must also be of when you are in the forward toilet as it is close to the flightdeck. The problems arise on non GSM equipped aircraft when people have phones on down the back which are working hrough ground base stations, at much higher power levels, and it is these powerful emittances that bugger up mainly the nav systems.

I don't mind it as I only have to switch the system off and on, not actually do anything with it!

cheers
schmo

[Morningside]

They were talking about this on Radio 4. Problem is that costs are cut so much to the bone that they have to make up costs with addons. Drinks etc and mobiles are just the next step but at 5p a second it has to be a bit urgent.

[isee]

I agree about it being bks.
Makes my piss boil when they insist you switch the device off even if it comes equipped with a flight mode...
However my flying instructor told me that once his glass cockpit was spitting out rubbish and made no sense. until he discovered he left his mobile phone on...

[Vipers]

Chief executive Michael O'Leary said: "It will be very welcome for people who want to make and receive urgent or important calls. (Give me a break)

"I think the big users here would be teenagers, people generally visiting friends and family."

Spot on mate, teenagers, yap yap yap yap yap yap yap, tis bad enough as it is with people on bus's and trains, "Hello mum, I am on the train"

[schmalex]

Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said:

It will be very welcome for people who want to make and receive urgent or important calls.

he then said:

I think the big users here would be teenagers, people generally visiting friends and family.

Surely this is a contradiction in terms.

• Teenagers never have anything urgent and important to say to anyone. Ever.
• People visiting friends & family will text when they first get on the plane & then text again when they land (at least, that's what's happened for the last 10 years or so quite happily).

Edited by schmalex on Friday 20th February 15:51

[GregE240]

More reason never to get on a Ryanair plane, then.

Never have, never will.

[The Fly Fisher]

Surely just a matter of time 'til BMI, BA and all the rest jump on the bandwagon.

Personally, my professional life revolves around my Blackberry, but I appreciate the quiet hour or so on domestic flights so I won't be using it there.

They should have 'phone seats' to put all the annoying phone users together too, just like the used to do with smokers.

[Vipers]

schmalex said:

People visiting friends & family will text when they first get on the plane & then text again when they land (at least, that's what's happened for the last 10 years or so quite happily

And before that, a phone call from a "Telephone", "Assuming we are on time, we will see you around 9.30".....

My god and it worked.......... Not being on time, but another human being actually knew roughly when they would see you.

[ianash]

Never flying with Ryanair again. I find it quite hard to pay for a service to an organization, which is so contemptuous of its customers. Pricks using the phone en-route is final straw.

[Shaw Tarse]

HELLO I'M ON A PLANE!