It’s coming, and it won’t be long before it’s the norm everywhere – using mobile phones on planes. In Europe it’s now come one step closer as British government watchdogOfcom gave permission for UK-registered planes to all calls when in European airspace and flying at a height on 10,000 feet or more. However, thatdoesn’t make it a done deal. The European Aviation Safety Agency would still need to give the nod to any hardware necessary forimplementing the idea to ensure it didn’t interfere with other electronics on the craft. On top of that, the UK Civil Aviation Authority told theBBC that airlines would need to develop procedures and train cabin crew in the systems. A spokesman said, "None [of the airlines] have formallyapproached us yet. It’s down to the airlines to decide whether they want to fit the systems then they would have to get approval for that." Each plane would carry a tiny mobile phone basestation, which would be switched on in flight to create a bubble of coverage around the aircraft. Calls could then be routed via satellite, with European radio spectrum already set aside for thepurpose, although the service would only work in Europe. Call costs have yet to be set, but will almost certainly be higher than surface calls, and for the moment at least, it won’t beable to cope with 3G.
