I’m Making Calls on a Plane

It’s not as like getting drunk on a plane, but a consumer panel recommended that the Department of Transportation allow airlines  to decide whether to allow cellphone calls during flight. For years, it was impossible to place a call via cellphone while thousands of feet in the air, but with a network of cell towers on the ground and antennas inside airplanes, it’s now possible. It’s just not allowed. According to USAToday, the recommendation from the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protection comes more than a year after federal agencies collected thousands of complaints against the prospect that the Federal Communications Commission would lift a 1991 ban on in-flight cellular calls.
Some members of Congress also threatened to start legislation that would prohibit calls if the FCC lifted the ban. They are worried that if people can make calls from airplanes, the towers on the ground would become congested and slow way down. However, the FCC said this is no longer a problem. “We recommend that if safe and secure, that the Department of Transportation allow airlines to decide whether to permit passengers to use mobile devices for voice calls,” said Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who is chairman of the advisory panel .(USAToday) However, the FCC and DOT don’t have any immediate plans to discuss this issue.