The thought of in-flight Internet access first sounded incredible, you can actually get things done on the plane: access your desktop remotely, instant message with friends, respond to email, write a blog and also make phone calls. The list was sounding great until that last phrase, make phone calls.
As I read the article about Alaska Airlines installing Wi-Fi in their fleet of Boeing 737 airplanes it sounded great until I clicked on the “related articles” at the bottom. It went into detail on how both Southwest and Jet Blue are planning similar ideas and Jet Blue may even be going into a contract with Skype.
For those of you not familiar with Skype, it started out as a way to call other “Skype” users over the Internet similar to the way you chat with fellow AIM or Yahoo Messenger users, but has developed into a way to call any phone number, land line or cell phone across the world for free and for a fee can be assigned a phone number as receive phone calls as well. It uses voice over Internet protocol, commonly known as VOIP which makes phone calls through an Internet connection.
For years, airlines have used what I consider a bogus excuse for not allowing cell phones, that is, that the radio frequency used by the pilots to talk to air traffic control could be somehow interrupted by the use of cell phones, although police never seem to have an issue using similar radio frequencies surrounded by cell phone users… have you ever picked up a police radio call on your cell phone?
Although I think it is bogus I did enjoy the excuse, especially during travel. On a recent trip to Austin, Texas, as I was sitting on a plane and looking around, I noticed many different people sitting around me. I can’t imagine what kind of conversations they would be having if I was sitting next to them and they were able to use their cell phone.
Can you imagine the 16-year-old girl who is coming back from vacation and has just received a call from her friend that her boyfriend, who she planned to spend the rest of her life with, has just cheated on her with her other best friend? What about the person who thinks that if it is loud on the other end of the phone that screaming into the phone is the only way the other person will hear?
I love the idea of Wi-Fi access and air travel, but let’s keep the noise on the plane down to a crying baby or two and some quite conversation amongst passengers.