Sometime later this year a European airline captain is likely to tell passengers over the public address system: We’re passing through 10,000 feet and it’s OK to turn on your cell phone.
Arrrrgh! (That’s for those of us hoping for a little quiet time on the flight home.)
But Ericsson is just involved in setting up the infrastructure on the ground and in the air, not on setting the rules on how and when cell phones are used on airplanes. That will be up to the airlines, many of which are keen to introduce the new service, and regulatory authorities (should they get involved in a passenger code of conduct). Christian Jansson, a senior radio network specialist with Ericsson, said here at the Paris Air Show that his company, the biggest owner of cell phone infrastructure in the world, is launching its GSM technology service for that purpose. GSM is the dominant type of technology used in Europe and Asia, but is not as common in the United States.
Jansson says that Ericsson is talking to Airbus and Boeing, which are interested in seeing cell phone service offered on their aircraft, and a few airlines in Europe, Asia and the U.S. A launch customer airline is likely to emerge from Europe and have the cell phone service in use by the end of this year, Jansson states, now that Ericsson has the technical issues solved.
A 45-lb radio base station, an ARINC 600 format line replaceable unit (LRU) developed by Ericsson, is designed for installation on airline and business jet aircraft. It will be able to handle 58 calls simultaneously, and Ericsson says there is enough bandwidth already available in air-to-ground satellite communication data links to handle many more calls than this. An airline aircraft could boost peak capacity by adding more LRUs, with each one being able to handle 58 calls. A single phone call takes up about 8 kilobits per second of transmission bandwidth; Ericsson figures that 300 kbps of bandwidth will handle the needs of one LRU for all but the highest level of use. The next step is to install the LRU on an aircraft and have it certified by regulatory authorities.
It’s the LRU that’s smart enough to tell the cell phone how to make a connection to it on the airplane, not the other way around. And one thing the LRU will do is tell the cell phone to “pipe down” and transmit at just 2 miliwats, not the much higher setting used on the ground where the signal has to reach a cell phone tower quite a distance away.
Jansson says the key business driver for cell phone service on airline aircraft is that it be made available for a very low tariff of about 1 euro, or about $1.25, per minute. If it is 10 euros per minute, the service will have limited appeal, he says. The aim is to have the service affordable enough to be used by all passengers and crew members.
Ericsson is also talking to satellite providers who are already connected in such a way as to provide cell phone service on cruise ships and in remote areas where there are no cell phone towers. These suppliers want to add airlines.
The bill for a passenger’s inflight call will go to that person’s regular cell phone account. But there is also a possibility that airlines could get involved as “operators” and earn some revenue. Ericsson doesn’t see cell phone service on the airplanes as a big money generator in itself. Its aim is to enhance service so that its customers can connect by cell phone any time and anywhere. And it thinks airlines may use the service to help differentiate themselves from their competitors. So if you fly on airline X you can use your cell phone, while on airline Y you cannot.
Jansson says flight attendants will set the tone in the cabin governing cell phone usage and will be talking to passengers about it.
What he didn’t say is that those passengers who prefer quiet may just choose airline Y. —David Hughes
