European regulators have come to a decision after a six month investigation which will bring mobile phone calls to planes flying in European airspace. The service works by a small mobile phone base station installed in the plane (pico cells). The base station will be switched on after take-off and be capable of generating coverage in and around the aircraft while in flight. All calls initiated in the sky will be routed to terrestrial networks via satellite link and then across Europe’s radio spectrum that has been set aside for the technology. The final result is a clear, crisp phone call while on an airplane without the use of the overpriced and inconvenient credit card required, built-in plane phones. Although the approval is only good for European airspace, early reports say that the services “could stop” working once aircraft leaves European airspace. The other big kicker here is that this system only works for 2G network connectivity, so if you expect to get your 3.5G HSDPA going on in flight, you will have to wait a little while longer. Expect flights as early as next month to start offering in-flight mobile phone service with Air France starting the inauguration since they are the first airline ready to install the technology.
