I’ve written about cell phones on planes before, and how they might be coming to U.S. airlines (though for now, the official word on that is, “no way“).
But there are calls, and there are calls – as a recent USA Today article underscores in a discussion of VoIP communication and conferencing on flights.
For those of you saying, “v-o-i-what?” – VoIP stands for “voice over internet protocol” and in simple terms, is a transmission technology for delivering your voice (and sometimes video) over the internet – like a phone call.
Neither the FAA nor the FCC outlaw such calls, as far as I can determine – but the airlines do (or many say they do, anyway). But – why? Very good question, so, keep reading…
Many of you are probably most familiar with the VoIP called Skype, just as many business people know applications like Avistar.
Can such calls be made right now, using your laptop or a phone that uses WiFi connections for calls? You bet. The chief marketing officer of Avistar tested his system for both calling and video-conferencing on a flight from NY to San Mateo last January, and it worked just fine.
But airlines, for the most part, don’t like this. As a spokesman for AirTran told us, the carrier “intentionally made the decision” to disable such communications, “out of respect and concern for all passengers”.
Respect and concern for all passengers – meaning, so we don’t have to suffer chatty seat mates? Or is it so these callers don’t use up all the bandwidth? Avistar’s Stephen Epstein thinks it’s the latter – and he also thinks, the time for VoIP has come, saying “It simply makes travel more productive.”
And what do you think, Readers?
I might sound like a broken record since I mention this in previous cell in the air postings, but having use of a cell phone in flight is not only to make calls and talk till you turn blue, but also to access the internet, watch youtube etc. At times if a flight has a movie it may be somehting you want to watch, other times you either already seen it or don’t care to watch it. I rather watch something on my laptop which would be connected to my cell as a modem. If it means having to pay a surcharge (the norm these days) to be able to use my cell on a flight, I would welcome it. Yes the airlines might give us that sorry excuse of not allowing cell phones on flights because it might bother other passengers, but Some of us can’t spend the money on getting those Bose noise cancellation headphones to block out those crying babies/annoying children, which no matter what, do not have a mute button and are annoying the passengers.
Very easy way around these “voip” restrictions…..VPN people….have been doing it for months with delta, works great. Full on VoIP and Video Conf. Works like a charm!!!!
According to the Wall St. Journal (“Lufthansa to Upgrade to Better Wireless Connections,” http://bit.ly/XDFKq), the trend for offering in-flight Internet access will increase. No doubt high-speed Internet access will be commonplace in a few years. So we can expect more in-flight videoconferences. But since people need headphones to conduct those calls, and because they’re talking business, I think most will talk softly.
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