Posted: April 25, 2007

While sleep may remain safe from work for now (for those of us who actually sleep now and then), its tenuous grasp on isolation from the daily grind has slipped another notch with the concerted effort to allow cell phone usage on airplanes.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority says that it has enabled a limited evaluation of GSM mobile phones and GPRS devices on a commercial aircraft. The evaluation, which is limited to one aircraft for up to 12 months, will be conducted by the national carrier, Qantas. The evaluation will be conducted on one Qantas passenger aircraft operating only on domestic Australian routes. Qantas has decided to commence the evaluation with email and text only, disabling voice services. ACMA and other government bodies will then consider the potential for permanent regulatory arrangements for the service once the results of the evaluation are known.

Furthermore, starting in July, Air France will conduct a six-month trial in which customers flying on the Airbus A318 will be able to send text messages and emails from their cell phones. For the last half of the trial passengers will also be able to use voice services. The service is expected to initially cost between $2.30 and $2.50 for making in-flight calls. For texts and emails, no formal pricing plan has been released by the airlines.

Air France said it is aware of the potential annoyance of in-flight mobile phone conversations and so, at the end of each flight during the trial, passengers will be given a questionnaire for feedback on the service.

BMI and Ryanair have also explored the possibility of enabling mobile services on their aircraft, but have been delayed by certification procedures.

With wireless signals become more and more ubiquitous, now working in most indoor spaces and even in underground spots such as subways, airplanes are one of the last places that people cannot use their mobile phones. Although email can still be used, the lack of voice communication has forced some of us to relax and take a much-needed break from the 24/7 work week. It has also allowed those of us without a mobile device attached to our hip a brief respite from businessmen and teenagers who seemingly have no regard for how disruptive and annoying they can be, especially those who haven’t realized that cell phone technology has progressed to the point that one no longer needs to shout into the handset to be heard. If your company, your friend, or your significant other cannot exist without your constant input for the length of a flight, then perhaps that relationship is too demanding in the first place.

Hopefully these trials will be so annoying to those on the plane that the airlines will be forced to abandon the project. Yet, I seem to remember everybody saying that reality television was on the way out about five years ago because most viewers thought it was annoying, and if you need any further proof that this death knell was premature, I just saw an ad for the casting of The Real World 20. At least wireless carriers haven’t penetrated our dreams; yet.

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Technorati