 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion Groups Destinations USA and CanadaEuropeAustralia and NZAsiaLatin AmericaCaribbean IslandsAfricaTravel Types Air TravelCruisesRV Travel |
Travel Forum / Travel Types / Air Travel / April 2008Inflight mobile phone trials slammed
http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/news/article3812541.ece 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.” That's really good news! Currently I don't travel by plane that much. 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 “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. > 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? > In article <67p0reF2qi6r...@mid.individual.net>, > Tom P <tombn...@freenet.dd> quoted: [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > 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... http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/news/article3812541.ece 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.” |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2009 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.