Flee the Friendly Skies: Mobiles at 3000 Meters

As the U.S. moves closer to in-flight broadband, accompanied by a sense of horror about the idea of in-flight cell calls or VoIP, the European Union inches closer to outright support for calls made above 3000 meters. Two moves today by the European Commission (EC) bring in-flight calls quite close.

With no harmonized air-to-ground frequencies available in European or even in the works, we won't see the kind of broadband effort that Aircell purchased the rights to and is launching across the U.S. Aircell can cheaply achieve high-speed broadband (a few Mbps in each direction) because they won't need to pay what are typically very high rates to satellite operators for bandwidth. (A satellite-backed U.S. competitor, Row 44, disagrees about satellite costs; they're launching a trial with Alaska Airlines, while Aircell has a fleet agreement with Virgin America, and a trial agreement with American Airlines.)

Rather, the Europeans are obsessed by "mobile" calling in the air. The EC today recommended to European spectrum regulators that they allow a license issued in one member country to allow use over all EU nations. Likewise, they did some technical work to assure that ground-based operators won't suffer from airborne interference. European aviation authorities previously approved the notion of mobile use in the air, and some specific equipment has been certified, too.

In-flight calling relies on a picocell, a small cell base station that cell phones recognize and associate with. The picocell can be backhauled to a voice and data network by satellite or ground; European service will launch with OnAir, a very patient operator (it's delayed its launch by about four years by the current count), which uses satellite for backhaul. Up to 12 calls can be made at the same time on a flight. The EC approved only the 1800 MHz band for calling, which means that U.S. travelers will need a quad-band GSM phone. Verizon and Sprint Nextel users need not apply, nor owners of GSM phones that have only U.S. bands built in. (The iPhone, before you ask, is only available as a quad-band phone.)

Your own mobile operator will set the price you pay for a call, and needs a roaming relationship with OnAir. The cost was estimated at about $2.50 before the huge drop in the dollar; it's unclear whether that's what the debut price will be. EC regulators have made a huge push in the last year to ensure lower pan-European roaming prices, and are taking a flinty-eyed view of in-flight tariffs.

Just a few days ago, Air France started an experimental trial of voice in the air, which extends three months unless complaints intrude. The voice trial is the second half of a mobile test, the first three months of which were devoted to text messaging and cell email.

RyanAir has committed to turning its entire fleet of aircrafts into telephone booths as soon as all the regulatory hurdles are covered. RyanAir offers flights as cheap as 1 euro or 1 pound, and makes much of its money from selling food and other goods in flight, as well from two of the three ancient vices: drink and gambling. The third vice, while legal in the UK and parts of Europe, is still not offered in air.