Ryanair to allow inflight mobile phone calls by month’s end

by Grant Martin on

To the disgust of millions of quiet-airplane activists, the scales are starting to tip in the direction of mobile phones being allowed on aircraft. Today, word leaked from the UK indicates that Ryanair, the continent’s largest budget carrier will start to allow inflight mobile phone calls on a limited basis.

If these trials pan out and and model is profitable, you can expect that the service will be expanded to all aircraft in the Ryanair fleet — and further into the European Union.

All of this micro buildup from several international carriers testing out inflight mobile service is just prolonging the inevitable, unfortunately — at some point I get the feeling that we’re all going to have to sack up and deal with loud talkers on our flights.

Interestingly, however, Ryanair is taking a different approach to fees associated with the service than other carriers — they don’t plan to enforce any wild roaming fee from which they take a giant cut. Instead, CEO Michael O’Leary says that passengers will only be subject to normal roaming fees. Perhaps the profit that he plans to make from increased fare revenues will make up for the mobile phone equiment.

Phone safety tips – safeguarding your phone on a trip

by Scott Carmichael on

If you plan to take your phone abroad, please take a moment to read through these tips on safeguarding your phone and your data. Back in January a member of the UK government lost his Blackberry during a trip to China. Of course, with a device like that there are all kinds of security risks. But even if you are not a senior government official, it is important to protect your phone.

I’ve put together a couple of simple ways you can stay safe, plus some information on what to do if your device does go missing.


Don’t show off your phone.

The iPhone and most Blackberry models rank up there with that well known Cola brand in the red can; everyone recognizes it. Sadly, not everyone around you will be as good natured as yourself, so don’t flash your phone around too much. If possible, put it in a nondescript case so you don’t tell the world you have an expensive phone. Don’t forget that those white iPod headphones can also be recognized by anyone. Replace them with something less recognizable and you won’t stand out too much.

Leave your phone at the hotel and carry a cheaper model.

If at all possible, leave your phone at the hotel, and carry a cheap disposable phone. Your Blackberry, iPhone or other smartphone is always going to be attractive to thieves, but if you carry an ugly $50 phone, nobody will think of stealing it (hopefully).

Know who to call.

If disaster does strike, and someone runs off with your phone, do you know who to call? If your phone is stolen or missing, don’t assume it’ll be OK, and don’t think you can take care of things when you get back home. Call your operator immediately. When someone steals your phone, the first thing you’ll want to do is block the account to prevent it from ending up being used by 100 people at the local phone store to make international calls.

Since some countries block access to US toll free numbers, you’ll need to use the international customer service number for your operator. In some cases, if the call is about a stolen phone, you can ask the customer service representative to call you back, or even use collect call to contact them.

  • AT&T Wireless: 1-916-846-4685
  • T-Mobile: 1-505-998-3793
  • Verizon Wireless: 1-908-559-4899
  • Sprint: 1-817-698-4199 (Sprint also have several toll free international access numbers here)

Password protection is your friend – use it!

Pick up your phone right now, and read through all your emails, text messages, notes and contacts. Now picture all of that information being handed over to a complete stranger. That is what happens if someone steals your device. Everything you have stored on the phone will land in the hands of someone else.

If you must use email on your device, make sure it is not using the same email account you use for banking, Paypal, Ebay or anything else important. If someone steals your phone while it is set to receive your primary emails, then they could gain access to all your personal information and bank accounts in a matter of minutes.
Some devices have the ability to be remotely locked, if you have a company phone with this option, be sure to carry the number of your IT department so they can assist you.

Always enable the password protection feature of your phone. I’m fully aware that it is a hassle to have to enter the password every time you want to use your device, but it really is the only way to safeguard your data. If someone does make off with your phone, you’ll at least feel safer knowing that there is no way for them to make things worse.

Plane Answers: A rant in favor of cell phones on airplanes

by Kent Wien on

Welcome to Gadling’s feature, Plane Answers, where our resident airline pilot, Kent Wien, answers your questions about everything from takeoff to touchdown and beyond. Have a question of your own? Ask away!

Bud vents a little frustration:

There is no data whatsoever that cell phones interfere with airplane navigation systems. In fact, there have been tests with cell phone signals amplified ten fold and without interference. So every time the flight attendent comes on the intercom and tells the cabin to turn off cell phones because “they may interfere” with the airplanes navigation system, I simply stop and think to myself, that if they would lie to me about something that doesn’t hurt at all, how much can they be trusted to tell me the truth about something that really might be harmful. I think that if you will lie about a small thing, you will lie about a big one. And since the Captain allows the lie to be broadcast, who can you really trust? Reminds me of the government agent arriving on a doorstep and saying “trust me, I’m here to help you!” Yeah! Right?

I don’t agree with your logic, Bud. The most frequently quoted study was done by Carnigie Mellon University in 2003. Their comprehensive findings were summarized as follows:
The key conclusions were that (1) onboard cellular telephone calls were observed in-flight and activity is appreciable; (2) signal activity was observed in the aviation critical frequency bands at field strengths capable of causing interference to onboard avionics; and (3) onboard spectral activity was observed at flight critical phases.

The entire report is fascinating, but if you don’t have the time to read it all, here is a short interview with Bill Strauss, the person responsible for the report. He found that 1/3 of the time cell phones were being used illegally inflight, their frequencies actually crossed into the GPS band.

The FAA mandates in FAR 91.21 that carriers restrict the use of non-approved electronics devices. Flight attendants are required to enforce these regulations, and even the inflight announcements restricting cell phone use made by the cabin crew must be signed off by the FAA. So, instead of lying to you, these flight attendants are complying with the regulations of their job.

To borrow your logic a bit, let’s imagine a flight attendant who skipped the cell phone announcement. What other parts of their job might they be neglecting? Can you then trust them to check their fire extinguisher, oxygen and escape slide pressures before departure?

It’s been the policy of each of the airlines I’ve worked for that pilots and flight attendants are to be truthful with passengers.

It doesn’t matter what the delay is, we will always try to give as much insight as possible into the reason. There’s honestly no incentive for us to tell passengers anything other than the truth.

The airline I currently work for decided to go through the long and costly process to demonstrate to the FAA that cell phone use after landing and while taxiing to the gate was safe.

The test involved filling every seat with a person using a cell phone from a variety of manufacturers on each of the airplanes the airline operated.

Little regard was given to GPS and ground-based navigation interference, since the airplane was simply taxiing to the gate. Subsequently, each airplane type at the company passed, except for one. When this airplane, an Airbus, was tested, for some reason the smoke detector in a lavatory would activate.

After further modifications, the FAA approved cell phone use while taxiing in for each one of our aircraft types. I realize this is anecdotal, but it does represent at least some sort of interference, I suppose.

In the past, the FCC banned cell phones inflight because they would interfere with the networks on the ground. According to the author of the Carnegie Mellon study:

The FCC feels it can probably lift the ban, even if there are problems of interference [on board airplanes]. They’re saying to FAA, “If you want a ban, that’s your territory.”

Europe has recently approved cell phone use inflight, but that’s still subject to the European Aviation Safety Agency determining that interference isn’t an issue. I suppose in the U.S. if the public demands the use of cell phones on an airplane (a big if) then it’s going to be up to the airlines to convince the FAA it’s safe.

But please don’t blame the pilots or the flight attendants for following the regulations that are currently in place.


Do you have a question about something related to the pointy end of an airplane? Ask Kent and maybe he’ll use it for next Friday’s Plane Answers feature.

Big in Japan: Are children becoming addicted to cell phones?

by Matthew Firestone on

At the risk of sounding like the anchorman on your local news channel, I’ll go head and pose a somewhat sensationalist question:

Are children suffering from cell phone addiction?

If you’re a member of the Japanese government, then the answer is a resounding ‘yes.’

According to Mr. Masahuru Kuba, a high-ranking government official who is proposing a limited ban on cell phones in schools, young students are suffering from the negative effects of cell phone overuse. In particular, Mr. Kuba believes that cell phone addiction can cause kids to inadvertently participate in cyber crimes, and sacrifice free time in favor of exchanging text messages with their friends.

“Japanese parents are giving cell phones to their children without giving it enough thought,” says Mr. Kuba. “In Japan, cell phones have become expensive toys that have moved beyond mere communication devices. Parents are finding it more and more difficult to monitor what they’re children are doing with their cell phones.”

Indeed, the numbers are striking. According to government statistics published by the Ministry of Education, about one-third of Japanese sixth graders have cell phones, while almost two-thirds of ninth graders have them. However, some Japanese children commute long distances by trains and buses to schools, and busy parents rely on cell phones to keep in touch with their children.

Along with the proposed partial ban of cell phones in schools, Mr. Masahuru Kuba is also recommending that Japanese cell phone makers implement special child-friendly models. Specifically, these models would only feature talking functions and global positioning systems (GPS), which would allow parents to monitor the location of their child.

In particular, Mr. Kuba is worried about the growing trend of using cell phones for internet access and e-mail. According to Mr. Kuba: “Some children are spending hours at night on e-mail with their friends. One phenomenon is ‘the 30 minute rule,’ in which a child who doesn’t respond to e-mail within half an hour gets targeted and picked on by other schoolmates.”

In addition, other children have become victims of internet crimes. In one high profile case, a young girl was asked to send in her snapshots for a beauty contest, and was then blackmailed for money in order to have them taken down from an explicit website. While Japan does boast a relatively low crime rate in comparison to other developed nations, Internet-crime is sadly on the rise, especially since Japanese people tend to be very trusting people.

So, once again I pose the question to all of you: do you think that children are suffering from cell phone addiction?

Feel free to chime in and share your thoughts as this is certainly not a clear cut and dry issue, and it’s likely that you’re going to start to hear more about this in the years to come. After all, cell phones in Japan are already equipped with television, so it’s only a matter of time before Americans can start taking their favorite shows with them everywhere…

Sense Networks can show you around town with Citysense

by Justin Glow on

Have you ever, upon arriving in a new city, wandered aimlessly in search of a popular place to eat or drink? Of course you have.

A new mobile company, Sense Networks, promises to make this much easier in the future with a new, somewhat creepy/bizarre cell phone application called Citysense that supernaturally senses the information emitted by cell phones and displays the results as a heat map on your own miniature screen (right).

The blotches of red represent large groups of people in a particular location, assuming most of them have cell phones. That data is then cross referenced with Yelp and Google Maps to provide information on what is actually at that location. So popular events, restaurants, or nightclubs are easily spotted and displayed along with their pertinent information.

Currently the service is being publicly tested with BlackBerry users in San Francisco only, with plans to support the iPhone and extend to other major U.S. metro areas in the near future.

For more information, visit Tech Crunch’s article on the service, or head directly to Sense Network’s website.