I never believed it • 20 February 2009 • The SnowBlog

I never believed it

          



Apparently RyanAir are going to let you use your mobile to make calls (at 3 per minute) while you're flying. Given that we've always been told mobile phones 'may interfere with the aircraft's navigational systems' isn't this terribly dangerous? Aren't they putting tens of thousands of lives in danger? Or maybe RyanAir will replace all of their aircraft with a new type that's immune to mobile phone usage. Or just possibly mobile phones never were bad for airplanes - after all, you can turn off the phones but not the giant cell phone towers on the ground. I've never liked it when companies decide to tell us obvious lies - particularly companies we trust with our lives. (And despite their insistence that I should listen to the flight safety announcement because they are 'periodically updated' they never are. It's always the same announcement I've been hearing since I was five.) 


Only quibblers need read on:

In theory, the type of picocell used on board a plane would allow mobile phones to make calls at very low power outputs. But then power output of a phone during a call is much higher than one on standby. So it's difficult to see why currently no phones must be switched on, but in the future phones making low-power calls will be allowed. 
Rob