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FCC Maintains Ban On In-Flight Cell Calls

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Interference to airplane control systems: wrong

sd_engineer

Mar 23, 2007, 10:57 AM
"Also, a CTIA test that took place last year demonstrated that in-flight cell calls continue to interfere with airplane control systems."

There is *nothing* in the referenced USA Today story that suggests this. CTIA is only considering the impact to cellular networks on the ground.

FAA has commissioned a separate committee to look at compatibility with aircraft systems. There is no mention of that work in the USA Today article.
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sd_engineer

Mar 23, 2007, 11:01 AM
Correction: there is a reference to FAA's effort in the USA Today article, but no mention of any findings.

Once again, CTIA's work has nothing to do with interference to aircraft.
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japhy

Mar 23, 2007, 11:31 AM
C'mon, don't you watch Mythbusters? 🙂

They did an episode on that, and while their tests weren't exhaustive, they proved at least the disctinct possibility that mobile phone signals cause some interference with flight systems.

I always laugh when I think about this, because if Boeing was as reliable as Cingular, there'd be a lot more people driving. 🙄
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muchdrama

Mar 23, 2007, 12:51 PM
japhy said:
C'mon, don't you watch Mythbusters? 🙂

They did an episode on that, and while their tests weren't exhaustive, they proved at least the disctinct possibility that mobile phone signals cause some interference with flight systems.

I always laugh when I think about this, because if Boeing was as reliable as Cingular, there'd be a lot more people driving. 🙄


Give me a car anyday.
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fahrende

Mar 23, 2007, 7:38 PM
I've heard this theory, but it sounds pretty convincing. The ban on in flight cell phone usage has nothing to do with interference. Airplanes are shielded for interference far too well for some measly cell phone to cause any damage. Think about its own electronic systems, solar radiation at the altitude, etc...

It's more of a protection measure by the carriers to protect their networks. At 35-45K feet, that's only about 7-9 miles up (well within range of a cell cite). When flying over land, it is very easy to pick up far more sites than when one is terrestrial. This confuses the network and if enough people do this, could bring portions of it down, so hence the banning of cell phone usage.

Plus imagine how annoying it would be to...
(continues)
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