Your Own Phone's to Go Aloft at Last: Honeywell Flies GSM-Compatible Unit
Honeywell (Booth 4201) is promoting a unit allowing standard cellular telephones to be used onboard business aircraft.
The new system is compatible with GSM-type phones, which in North America include the AT&T, Cingular and T-Mobile services.
GSM is also used by numerous international providers. It was chosen, in large part, because there are as many as 1.5 billion people using it worldwide, says David Gilbert, a Honeywell business manager for cabin services. GSM is also the fastest growing, he says.
A cellular base station on the aircraft keeps the phones from interfering with aircraft systems or the ground cellular network, Honeywell says, by directing each phone to adjust to its lowest possible power level. That too is made possible by standard features within the GSM digital regime. Text messaging and other features work as they do on the ground.
The system as tested used the Inmarsat satellite network to connect to a ground gateway linked to a standard cell phone network. It is, however, compatible with almost every air-to-ground communications system, Gilbert says. "We want to be able to support cell phones using a lot of different technologies," he told Show News.
A key challenge is—or was—the government. Not only is the FAA's approval required, but the FCC's as well: According to Gilbert, the Federal Communications Commission currently bans all use of cell phones in flight, even on hot air balloons.
"Things are gradually changing and the regulatory environment is getting easier," Gilbert says, enough so that Honeywell predicts it will begin selling the system by the end of this year.
"The FCC is becoming more open to finding ways of making it work," he says. "We are very comfortable about getting it certified for airborne use."
And while your phone will work like it does on the ground, it may just work too much like it does on the ground: Airborne users can expect to be hit with a whole new level of roaming charges.
