IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME, I suppose. Restrictions barring cellular phones and Internet access on board airplanes are currently being reviewed, with two European Airlines, TAP Air Portugal and BMI, positioning themselves to be the first to provide mobile phone coverage in Europe next year.
Some International carriers are already allowing Internet access. Scandinavian Airlines are one of several non-American carriers using an in-flight, high-speed Internet service called Connexion, developed by Boeing for its own commercial jetliners. The high use on the trans-Atlantic Scandinavian flights is somewhat unusual because they tend to be filled with tech-savvy Microsoft employees, who are even carting special noise-canceling headsets onto the planes to use Boeing’s satellite-based system to make free voice-over-Internet phone calls. Read To Surf Web While Aloft, Fly Foreign
The potential changes are stirring a debate amongst business travelers worldwide. James E. Katz, director of the Mobile Communication Studies Center at Rutgers University, suggested that the debate involves a deeper social context. “Airplanes,� he said, “have become the last place where people in business do not feel obliged to be constantly and immediately available.�
Mr. Katz said airplane travel is associated with productive time for many business travelers, either because it offers a place to work without being interrupted, or a sense of peace that has been lost in a culture of 24-hour connectivity. “We’ve created a world where if you don’t get back to somebody immediately, you’re suggesting they’re not important,” he said. “People love having the enforced tranquility.”
Many travelers, however, welcome the movement toward digital accessibility at 25,000 feet. Charles M. Lax, 46, a venture capitalist from New Center, Massachusetts gets nervous thinking about his messages piling up while he is in the air. “The voice mails stack up, the e-mails stack up, and it becomes a nightmare to respond,” said Mr. Lax, “Nine out of 10 times I fly I’m doing so for business, and I want to be productive in between.” Still, Mr. Lax said he could do without phone access on planes, but would like e-mail, which he said was a more efficient way to get business done anyway.
Full Story: Silence Aloft is Under Threat
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