Inflight Yakety-Yak: not so fast

Last month, I posted on cell phone calls  on airplanes. While my initial inclination is to say 'no way', I had seen some interesting early results that suggested that, in a few trials, users weren't abusers.

But maybe those trials were too limited, and maybe those who travel on Emirates Airline  and AirFrance just aren't big talkers. Maybe there should have been a trial on an American airline, with impatient, blustery American business people.

In any case, worries about inflight phone-a-thons may have been premature.

Thanks to Joe Sharkey's essay in the Sunday NY Times, I've got a little more skinny on inflight phone calls.

It seems that American Airlines is now offering Aircell's Internet access, and Delta and Virgin will be soon. But they're blocking use of VoIP phones.

E-mail, surfing, IM - have at it. But no Skyping.

Reflecting the continuing battles over cellphone use in other public settings, Aircell and American Airlines — so far the only airline offering Aircell’s in-flight Internet access, called Gogo — have erected technological barriers to block Skype and similar software programs from enabling voice calls in the insulated environment of the airplane cabin. American Airlines began offering Gogo last month.

The techier among us will no doubt find a work-around - I just hope not to be sitting next to one of them when he has his Eureka! moment and realizes he can start dialing for dollars.

...while there are raging controversies about cellphone use on ground-based public transportation like trains and buses, imagine how much more intense the concern becomes in an airplane cabin, where passengers are confined, often for long hours, in close proximity, unable to flee.

Worried about the in-flight equivalent of road rage, airlines have been less than enthusiastic about any form of voice-call capability.

I hope that if they can e-mail and IM, people should feel connected enough, without having to get into protracted (boring, loud, distracting) phone conversations.

Who know what will end up happening here, but so far Aircell says that if they find people sneaking a little VoIP into their communications mix, they'll turn off their access.

We'll see. (Or, rather, we'll hear.)