No Phones On A Plane

I posted a while back on how Emirates Airlines was going to allow cellphones on planes, and that the FCC was considering allowing flights on US planes. Well, they said no.

The FCC has determined that widespread cellphone usage in the air might jam cellphone use on the ground. They cited “insufficient technical information”, as their main reason for blocking the phones. Airphones, the ones in the seatbacks, use a different frequency than cellphones, and therefore don’t have this problem.

Additionally, the FCC cited a significant number of complaints about the idea of the person next to them chatting for 3 hours. Although, if wi-fi is accessiblity on flights, they may still have to deal with their neighbor talking on Skype for a few hours.

The FCC has said their decision is not permanent, and they are still gathering technical information on the situation.