Inflight mobile phone trials slammed
Jean Pool
From The Sunday Times
April 27, 2008
Inflight mobile phone trials slammed
Good news for the anti-mobiles-on-planes lobby (ie, all of us).
Passengers taking part in Air France’s in-flight mobile-phone trials
are reported to be less than impressed with the quality of the
service.
On April 1, Air France became the first carrier to allow travellers to
use their mobile phones in midair, but the integration of cellular
technology with aircraft avionics has not been seamless. Because calls
are routed via a satellite before being beamed to a ground station,
those using the £2.40-per-minute service experience delays and
overlaps in conversations - if they can get connected.
Most passengers say they had to make several attempts to dial out -
“It’s like calling from an underground car park,” one said - and
nobody can yet receive incoming calls or e-mails. While the poor
signal quality saves cabins from the chirruping of ringtones, the
downside is that passengers on outgoing calls have to shout to make
themselves heard. “It sounds as if I’m talking to a small robot,” one
customer said.
On Air, which developed the technology, has promised that the kinks
will be ironed out, but in one of its better decisions, British
Airways says it has no plans yet to introduce the service. Ryanair has
no such qualms: the service will be trialled on 20 aircraft later this
year before being expanded to the entire fleet.
British airlines to pioneer mobile calls
“Mobiles have become such an extension of people’s lives that it is
only natural to bring them into air travel,” the low-cost carrier
said. “We are not concerned about the noise because our cabins have
never been quiet places. People are constantly coming up and down the
aisles, selling scratch cards or food, and we believe there is a
market for this.”
virtuPIC
However, I ride railways some eight hours and light rail more than
three hours per week. People seem to be noise-eager since they are not
convinced by the driving noise of the train but also shourt to their
mobile phones. They have not understood that speaking at normal volume
is sufficient independent of the distance the phone will cover.
One more point for Lufthanse. They will not introduce base stations on
their phones in the near future since there have been too many fears /
complaints by passengers.
virtuPIC
--
Airspace V - international hangar flying!
http://www.airspace-v.com
Tom P
“We are not concerned about the noise because our cabins have
> never been quiet places. People are constantly coming up and down the
> aisles, selling scratch cards or food, and we believe there is a
> market for this.”
Well, that's certainly the absolute truth about Ryanair in a nutshell.
AES
Tom P <tomb...@freenet.dd> quoted:
> ³We are not concerned about the noise because our cabins have
> > never been quiet places. People are constantly coming up and down the
> > aisles, selling scratch cards or food, and we believe there is a
> > market for this.²
So if I play my personal in-flight music using a boombox instead of
headphones, neither the cabin crew or fellow passengers will object?
white...@yahoo.co.uk
> In article <67p0reF2qi6r...@mid.individual.net>,
> Tom P <tombn...@freenet.dd> quoted:
>
> > ³We are not concerned about the noise because our cabins have
> > > never been quiet places. People are constantly coming up and down the
> > > aisles, selling scratch cards or food, and we believe there is a
> > > market for this.²
>
> So if I play my personal in-flight music using a boombox instead of
> headphones, neither the cabin crew or fellow passengers will object?
I often end up too close to some porker who snores like a warthog...
Runge11
"Jean Pool" <michael...@yahoo.com> a écrit dans le message de
news:224d7bf0-2003-4050...@d1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...