Jet passengers may not get to chat on cellphones after all

JET PASSENGERS MAY NOT GET TO CHAT ON CELLPHONES AFTER ALL
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Paul Davidson]
The once-highflying idea of letting passengers use their wireless phones on airplanes is about to be grounded. Apparently, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is recommending the FCC drop its tentative plan to lift its ban on in-flight cellphone use. The FCC has long worried that wireless calls at 35,000 feet would clog hundreds of on-ground towers at once. That hurdle was expected to be remedied by a plan to send passengers' cellphone signals to a small airplane antenna, known as a pico cell. The antenna would then relay calls to earthbound towers over spectrum — earmarked just for air-to-ground use — won by AirCell in an FCC auction last year. But tests conducted last year by CTIA, a wireless association, showed that in-flight calls still cause interference, especially if the pico cell couldn't recognize the passenger's cellphone signal, says CTIA Vice President Chris Guttman-McCabe. AirCell CEO Jack Blumstein says the interference issues can be fixed. The larger obstacle, he says, is a lack of enthusiasm by both consumers and wireless industry players for in-flight cellphone use.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/telecom/2007-03-21-fcc-usat_N.htm

* Chief Says F.C.C. Is Against Cellphone Use on Airliners
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/business/23FCC.html
* Cellphone calls likely to remain grounded
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-airphone23mar23,1,188881.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business