Airlines Extend Onboard Cell Phone Use

American and Continental airlines effective this week have extended the time during which passengers can use mobile phones while onboard their aircraft--both prior to departure and upon arrival.

The policy changes, which also apply to two-way pagers and other electronic devices, allow passengers on all flights to use such devices before departure until the aircraft door is shut, instead of when the seat belt sign comes on as was the previous rule. According to American Airlines, that extension will give passengers an additional 10 minutes of talk time.

For arrivals, passengers now are allowed to start calling as soon as the aircraft lands, while it is still taxiing to the gate. Passengers previously had to wait until the airplane parked at the gate before operating electronic devices. The arrivals extension, however, applies only to flights landing in the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

America West, Southwest, United and US Airways have said they are reviewing similar policies as well.

The in-flight mobile phone ban is not a Federal Aviation Administration directive, but rather a Federal Communications Commission rule, according to FAA spokesperson Les Dorr. While FAA supports the rule, out of concern that electronic emissions from mobile communications devices may interfere with aircraft communications and navigation equipment, the larger issue stems from the magnified radio transmission power that mobile phones generate when used thousands of feet in the air. Transmitting from the sky overrides local cell phone antennae, enabling a caller from the sky to interfere with a wide range of communications over a large geographical span.

The FCC regulation and FAA advisory with regard to mobile phone use was last updated in 1997, Dorr said, "which is a long time in terms of wireless technology." He said FAA has commissioned RTCA, its federal advisory committee, to study the state of portable electronic devices and other emerging technologies and their potential for use aboard aircraft.

"They will be completing phase one of the study by November," Dorr said. "We need to have new data to back up any further changes to policies."