[Scan-DC] Airlines Prepare for Cellphone Calling

[Alan Henney]

Wall Street Journal-- Middle Seat column
Airlines Prepare for Cellphone Calling
Service Could Begin Next Year, But Safety Remains an Issue; Fliers
Sneaking Calls Now

March 14, 2006 / Scott McCartney
With technology and regulators moving rapidly, passengers could be
making and receiving cellphone calls aboard airline flights next year.
But a new study raises questions over whether that will be safe for
airplanes.

The study arrives less than two months before crucial government
decisions about inflight wireless communications are set to be made.
On May 10, the Federal Communications Commission will auction radio
spectrum that will allow telecommunications companies to operate
wireless Internet and cellphone services for air travel. Already,
several companies, including Verizon Communications Inc., AirCell, a
closely held Colorado company, and AeroMobile, a joint venture of
ARINC Inc. and Telenor ASA, are lining up to bid. The FAA recently
approved a Verizon Wi-Fi system that lets laptops connect to the
Internet from airplanes. (If Verizon wins spectrum at the May 10
auction, the company says the system could be up and running in 2007.)
Some companies are also unveiling new technology they say will make
inflight calling less disruptive and safer.

The problem with using cellphones on airplanes is that the devices can
interfere with Global Positioning Satellite systems, researchers say.
These systems are increasingly being used on commercial airplanes for
navigation. Interference could cause an airplane to lose the GPS
signal or even make a flight veer off course. Currently, federal rules
prohibit the use of personal electronic devices onboard airplanes
unless airlines can prove they are safe to operate.

In the new study, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University rode 37
passenger flights on three airlines with a device that measured
radio-frequency emissions from personal electronic devices, like
cellphones, BlackBerries and laptop computers. The study found
emissions from cellphones that could interfere with GPS systems. It
also revealed that some fliers are already making phone calls in
defiance of an industrywide ban: Indeed, one to four cell calls were
surreptitiously made on each flight studied.

Inflight cellular calls cause other problems, too. Since calling from
high up in the air can tie up a big chunk of capacity, wireless users
on the ground can be blocked from service. The FCC had banned
cellphone use on planes because of this problem.

But now communications companies are unrolling new technology to
address that issue. Some companies are preparing to equip airplanes
with "pico cell" cellular antennas that will allow as many as 100
cellphones at a time to work without disrupting cell service on the
ground. Since pico cells are installed on airplanes are thereby close
to the cellphones of passengers, the phones operate at low power and
won't produce interference with instruments, companies say.

Because of the pico-cell technology, which has been successfully
demonstrated with calls to and from an American Airlines flight and
Boeing's recent long-distance record-setting 777 trip, the FCC has
dropped its objection to using cellphones on airplanes.

Now the Federal Aviation Administration must make its own decision.
The agency has deputized a nonprofit advisory group called the RTCA
Inc. to study the use of personal electronic devices aboard airplanes
and to recommend policy, and the RTCA expects to issue a final report
in December. The report will likely outline specific procedures for
companies and airlines to prove that devices are safe to use, said
Dave Carson, co-chair of the RTCA committee and a Boeing Co. official.

Both the Wi-Fi network and the cell service will use radio spectrum
that the FCC will auction on May 10 for air-to-ground communications.
The spectrum had been reserved for telephones installed on airplanes.
But since those expensive, static-filled phones never took off, the
FCC decided to reallocate it. Two licenses will be awarded, FCC
spokeswoman Chelsea Fallon said.

But the researchers at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh say they believe
more study is needed before allowing inflight cellphone calls. The
researchers found that even though cellphones and laptops communicate
in radio bands that are separate from those used by GPS instruments,
emissions were still found in the GPS spectrum. That is because
emissions from several cellphones can mix together and migrate to
different frequencies, a phenomenon that is called "intermodulation."

"There is a clear and present danger: cellphones can render GPS
instruments useless for landings," the authors said in an article
published in IEEE Spectrum. Carnegie Mellon's research was funded by
the FAA.

Mr. Carson said the RTCA is looking at intermodulation and the
Carnegie Mellon results. The university research "does lend some
empirical support to what we knew from the beginning," he said. The
RTCA has also found evidence of possible GPS receiver interference.
But the committee also believes technical dangers can be overcome, he
said.

One certainty: Phone use, like use of computers and other electronic
devices, will only be allowed when planes are above 10,000 feet, and
will be prohibited during takeoff and landing.

Sometime within the next year, airlines will likely being training
flight attendants on how to instruct passengers on proper seat chatter
procedures and etiquette.

With the background noise of an airplane in one ear, users tend to
talk loudly into a cellphone. But yelling only makes the transmission
worse (and neighbors angry), experts say, and phones don't pick up
loud voices clearly. (Headphones may help.)

Do travelers really want to gab inflight? Of 8,000 comments to the FCC
when it proposed dropping its ban, only two or three were in favor.
The rest, except for the 50 or so technical reports, were from
travelers vociferously opposed, arguing that airplanes should be a
refuge from calls and emails. Flight attendant unions are also
opposed, fearing obnoxious phone habits could lead to air-rage
incidents.

If cellphones are allowed on airplanes, Granger Morgan, head of
Carnegie Mellon's department of engineering and public policy, would
like to see one other change: Flight-data recorders to track
electronic emissions should be modified so that crash investigators
can document a problem if trouble develops.