In-flight mobile calls approved by EU

Following intense lobbying by mobile phone networks, users and the airline industry the European Commission has sanctioned the use of mobile phones in-flight.

As a means of increasing profits this is of welcome news to the much blighted airline industry, and due to the international nature of air travel it was imperative that the EU rules applied across the country’s in order to make it viable.

The European Commission has provided the technical and licensing rules for the harmonization of prices across the use of mobile phones on aircraft within EU airspace.

It was only until recently that the aviation authorities overruled the notion that signals form mobile phones do not intervene with aircraft navigation of its in flight control systems.

As a result of the technological development of miniature cellular base stations known as picocells that can be attached to the aircraft, each plane will has use of its own satellite link for connecting calls to networks which will reduce the chances of any interference.

Although pricing of the calls has not been covered specifically by the EU rules meaning that this decision has been left up to the network operators and airlines.

The European commission has promised to take a stance on the issue as they focus on lowering the roaming charges between the EU member states, and warned that operators could not charge exorbitant rates and also had to be transparent in their pricing plans.

As well as avoiding the shock of astronomical call charges, the Commission also called for airlines too make sure that the right atmosphere is upheld so as other passengers do not get disturbed by other passengers calls.