Airbus has completed the first inflight trial of GSM mobile telephones aboard an A320—and contrary to the warning that we have all heard a million times, they did not interfere with the airplane's navigation and communications systems.
Airbus tested multiple mobile phones on an A320 carrying a prototype "picocell" developed by Icarelink. The telephones communicated with the picocell, which passed the signals to a router that dispatched them via the Globalstar satellite communications network. Calls were successfully passed to mobile and fixed telephones on the ground.
The company's goal is to field technology by 2006 that allows passengers to use mobile phones at rates that are in line with current mobile phone charges for international calls. Airbus also wants the technology to be compatible with the use of commercial wireless standards such as WiFi (802.11) and Bluetooth, and has recently completed tests of multiple wireless devices aboard an A340-600.
