DOT Clarifies Statment Concerning Phone Calls Aboard Flights
Ryan Boyd December 15, 2016
On Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx clarified that his proposal for airlines to inform travelers of whether voice calls are allowed aboard commercial flights was meant to limit the number of calls and not “open the floodgates.” Cellular voice conversations have been forbidden on commercial flights since 1991 in order to keep phone signals from interfering with relay stations, but in recent years, The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has considered the possibility of lifting this restriction.
Claiming that the proposal is meant to test the limits of how far the organization should go in regulating mid-flight voice calls, Foxx said, “Our intent isn’t to open the floodgates […] Our intent is to see how much we can close the floodgates.”
To read more on this story, go to USA Today.
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It's not the FTC that would be lifting the restriction. They have nothing to do with how the radio spectrum is used in the USA. It's the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that enacted the restriction of using phones in the air. If it does become permissible to use phones on board (and..please do NOT let this be the case), the cellular signals are unreliable and calls will often be dropped, if there's any signal at all. It will be WiFi that ends up carrying the voice calls. It's technically possible now, but the speeds are slow and/or the onboard wifi providers disable any kind of streaming. On the other hand, I carried on a 20 minute wifi call using FaceTime Audio with someone flying over the Atlantic with a Satellite Wifi connection on whatever airline he was on (Virgin Atlantic?). He stepped into the galley and had strange looks from people as he chatted on his phone.