Call home in midflight on your cell - soon you can

Virgin Atlantic has just announced that you will be able to make cell phone calls in midflight from 20 of their planes!
Only six passengers at a time will be able to use the system, which the airline says is intended "for use in exceptional situations." Passengers will be able to send text messages, make a call or access email on mobile devices.
Initially, the service, on Airbus A330-300 planes which utilize a satellite connection, will only be available for customers of European cell phone providers O2 and Vodafone and U.S. carrier T-Mobile.  The new system - basically akin to a roving, airborne cell tower - features picocell technology provided by AeroMobile, and the vendor states that it doesn’t interfere with aircraft avionics.
(currently within 250 miles of US airspace it is not allowed to make a cell call)




There was no comment from the NSA, NORAD, CIA, the FBI, the Secret Service or any other government agency including the White House on how those mysterious in-air cell phone calls were supposedly made on September 11th, 2001 when it was considered by experts as impossible to do so at that time.




There was no comment from United Airlines either, who lost Flight 93 on September 11, 2001 into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after numerous passengers allegedly made cell phone* calls while being hijacked, including the infamous Mark Bingham call to his mother.

ET, call home.




*not to be confused with airphone calls.

check out previous posts - 

from Sunday, July 15, 2007, commenting on the Maritz Research company study about cell phone use in midflight  becoming available soon - http://caterwauls.blogspot.ca/2007/07/cellphone-study-er-revelation.html
 
and from Monday, April 07, 2008, commenting on Air France's announcement of starting  trials of voice calls in midflight on an Airbus A318 - http://caterwauls.blogspot.ca/2008/04/new-cellphones-in-aircraft-in-flight.html

Technology news

Wow, look at this news item from the technology section of ABC News:
Cell Phones on Airlines: Coming Soon to a Seat Near You?

More and more international airlines are offering in-flight cell services and it might not be long before calls are routine on domestic U.S. flights as well. Cathay Pacific has now announced that, starting in 2012, it will equip its entire fleet with an onboard cell phone system for GSM mobile phones. Virgin Atlantic announced a similar plan last month for its newest planes.
Here in the U.S. the Federal Communications Commission prevents domestic carriers from following their international peers, and legislation is pending in Congress to ban in-flight cell-phone conversations. But some in the industry say it's only a matter of time before American airlines start bringing voice communication to the friendly skies.

Aviation Week, in 2004 printed - 'Qualcomm and American Airlines are exploring ways for passengers to use commercial cell phones inflight for air-to-ground communication'. They did a test with the aircraft being equipped with a special antenna in the front and rear of the cabin to transmit cell phone calls to a small in-cabin CDMA cellular base station. This "pico cell" transmitted cell phone calls from the aircraft via a Globalstar satellite to the worldwide terrestrial phone network.
Randy Petersen, editor and publisher of InsideFlyer magazine said, "We will see this in U.S. airplanes in the near future."

In the future? WTF?
Don't these people who are on the cutting edge of modern cell phone technology realize that way back there in September of 2001, there were several cell calls made with 2001 technology cell phones from an aircraft at speed up there at altitude in the sky?
Didn't they hear Mark Bingham say "Hello Mom, this is your son Mark Bingham."? He also said, "You believe me, don't you?"
Did they miss Cee Cee Lyles saying, "I'm on a plane. I'm on a plane that's been hijacked. I'm calling from the plane." and "Tell my children I love them ..." Not naming her children.
And a whole mess of other cell phone calls, all purportedly from that tragic Flight 93 while flying way up there in the air.

And a note; cell phone calls are not to be confused with airphone calls.

Nice to think that someday we'll be able to call friends and relatives from a plane in the air from a cell phone! Wonder who made all those other calls on that day?

Haven't these advanced thinking techies ever heard of 9-11? Shanksville? UAL Flight 93? Well evidently not.

But we have, haven't we?