electronrun.com

Imagine working like a dog for months and finally finishing your Friday work to board the plane to your much awaited holiday destination. But while having a peaceful flight with your wife and getting a nap is in your best intentions, people around you are speaking ceaselessly on their telephones. To the point that you cannot concentrate to even read or eat.

Is that how air travel will shape up? A recent survey in the US showed that 3/4 of Americans want in-plane data services, but say a big “no” to voice calls. People traveling in planes are so tightly packed, that one person’s communication could well be their neighbour’s misery.

And there is the worrying issue of etiquette. Apparently, the companies designing the new services rely heavily on the assumption that people will be sensible. But when has this happened with voice calls before? The fact that there is cafes where mobile calls are not allowed is evidence that people cross boundaries very easily and further stricter action is obviously necessary.

On the data side of things I would say that the situation is much simpler. It might be tempting for people to look at co-travelers’ screens, there might be access to porn, but overall these are problems that have relatively easy solutions and are nowhere near the disturbance of noise voice calls. One option with voice calls could be the partitioning of passenger seating for callers and non-callers, much like in the days when smoking was partially allowed, a solution that is not especially effective for passengers sitting near or even for those inside the voice call area.

Legislation typically lags the plans of airlines and be sure that differences between carriers will be huge. Given these disparities, a still shaping mobile device market and travellers that don’t have a clue on what is coming, we are in in for a lot of searching till there will be some sensible universal rules as to how far we can go with both voice and data in air travel.