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Gold9472
08-01-2005, 09:28 AM
Can you hear me on a 747?
FCC set to consider in-flight cell phones

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/12/15/MNGUMAC6LB1.DTL

David Lazarus
Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Air travel, already a less-than-pleasant experience, soon may become a whole lot worse.

The Federal Communications Commission is expected today to begin a process to relax the agency's ban on the use of cell phones aboard aircraft.

If the FCC determines that technological issues can be adequately addressed, and if a separate study by the Federal Aviation Administration finds that cell phones don't affect aircraft safety, it's likely that passengers will be allowed to jabber away during flights within the next few years.

And you thought one or two crying kids were an annoyance.

"You can imagine airlines putting up dividers, making talking and non- talking sections," said Mark Cooper, research director for the Consumer Federation of America. "We'll have to see what the demand is for both cell phones and quiet and then see how the airlines respond."

Today's vote by the FCC is intended to address whether technology has improved to the extent that cell phone calls now are possible above 10,000 feet -- they weren't in the past -- and whether they'd mess up ground- based communications.

"We adopted this rule 20 years ago," said Lauren Patrich, a commission spokeswoman. "Technology has advanced quite a bit in the last 20 years."

One promising technology developed by Qualcomm would allow cell phone calls to be blasted from aircraft into space and then beamed back to Earth by satellite.

For its part, the FAA is exploring whether modern technology still poses a danger of interfering with aircraft radio and navigation systems.

"If a device could be proven not to interfere with airline systems, we would allow it," said Paul Takemoto, an FAA spokesman.

If the FCC, as expected, votes today to proceed with its study, it should be in a position to make some decisions by the end of next year. The FAA study isn't expected to be completed until 2006.

All that's known at this point is that neither the FCC nor the FAA is interested in policing wireless use aloft.

Both agencies say it'd be up to individual airlines to decide what rules, if any, should apply to airline cabins crammed full of fidgety business travelers and bored passengers armed with cell phones.

"We haven't formulated a unified airline front on this issue," said Jack Evans, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, an industry group. "But it's on our radar screens. It's an issue we'll have to address."

This much at least is clear: Cell phones represent a potentially lucrative revenue source for cash-strapped carriers, which face a projected $5 billion loss this year.

Evans acknowledged that airlines already get a piece of the action from seat-back phones in jets (even though, at about $2 a minute, the handsets are too pricey for most travelers).

"I assume that the carriers would also make money if cell phones are allowed aboard aircraft," he said. (In theory, fees could be levied as individual calls are transmitted via special gear from jets to satellites.)

This would create a strong incentive for airlines to allow the practice and a significant disincentive to do much, if anything, about subsequent inconvenience for passengers who'd prefer instead a little peace in which to read.

Faced with booming cell phone use, Amtrak has introduced "quiet cars" on some trains. But that's not as easily done with an aircraft.

One possibility is that passengers will agree to pay an extra fee for no- phones-allowed quiet flights. Another is that sales will boom for those noise- reducing headsets that some travelers already use to shut out engine noise.

Evans is sympathetic. "When I'm on the subway, I don't want to be near someone talking at that elevated volume that, for some reason, people have to talk at whenever they talk on cell phones," he said.

But progress is progress.

"This is a competitive business," Evans said. "If one airline offers this service, they probably all will."

Something to look forward to.

A false alarm: Speaking of cell phones, e-mail has been circulating in recent days warning that people's mobile numbers are about to be handed out to telemarketers.

"It's an urban legend," said Jen Schwartzman, a spokeswoman for the Federal Trade Commission in Washington. "There's no cause for concern."

The e-mail making the rounds says that "all cell phone numbers will be made public to telemarketing firms" as of Jan. 1.

"Unlike your home phone, most of you pay for your incoming calls," it says. "These telemarketers will eat up your free minutes and end up costing you money in the long run."

The e-mail adds that consumers have until today to register their cell phones with the national Do Not Call list.

Schwartzman said that while service providers are in fact creating a 411 directory for cell phone numbers, consumers will be asked up front whether they want to be listed. No one's number will automatically make it into the directory, she said.

We shall see.

In any case, Schwartzman said, there's no deadline if people want to register their cell phones with the Do Not Call list. "You can register at any time if you feel you need the added protection," she said.

It's probably a good idea. You can add your cell phone (or any phone) to the Do Not Call list by dialing (888) 382-1222 or by visiting www.donotcall.gov.

David Lazarus' column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He also can be seen regularly on KTVU's "Mornings on 2." Send tips or feedback to dlazarus@sfchronicle.com.

Gold9472
08-01-2005, 10:20 AM
(9:20 a.m.): Barbara Olson Said to Call from Flight 77, but Account Is Full of Contradictions
www.cooperativeresearch.org

A passenger on Flight 77, Barbara Olson, calls her husband, Theodore (Ted) Olson, who is Solicitor General at the Justice Department. [San Francisco Chronicle, 7/23/04] Ted Olson is in his Justice Department office watching WTC news on television when his wife calls. A few days later, he says, “She told me that she had been herded to the back of the plane. She mentioned that they had used knives and box cutters to hijack the plane. She mentioned that the pilot had announced that the plane had been hijacked.” [CNN, 9/14/01 (C)] He tells her that two planes have hit the WTC. [Daily Telegraph, 3/5/02] She feels nobody is taking charge. [CNN, 9/12/01] He doesn't know if she was near the pilots, but at one point she asks, “What shall I tell the pilot? What can I tell the pilot to do?” [CNN, 9/14/01 (C)] Then she is cut off without warning. [Newsweek, 9/29/01] Ted Olson's recollection of the call's timing is extremely vague, saying it “must have been 9:15 [am.] or 9:30 [am.]. Someone would have to reconstruct the time for me.” [CNN, 9/14/01 (C)] Other accounts place it around 9:25 A.M. [Miami Herald, 9/14/01; New York Times, 9/15/01 (C); Washington Post, 9/21/01] The call is said to have lasted about a minute. [Washington Post, 9/12/01 (B)] By some accounts, his message that planes have hit the WTC comes later, in a second phone call. [Washington Post, 9/21/01] In one account, Barbara Olson calls from inside a bathroom. [Evening Standard, 9/12/01] In another account, she is near a pilot, and in yet another she is near two pilots. [Boston Globe, 11/23/01] Ted Olson's account of how Barbara Olson made her calls is also conflicting. Three days after 9/11, he says, “I found out later that she was having, for some reason, to call collect and was having trouble getting through. You know how it is to get through to a government institution when you're calling collect.” He says he doesn't know what kind of phone she used, but he has “assumed that it must have been on the airplane phone, and that she somehow didn't have access to her credit cards. Otherwise, she would have used her cell phone and called me.” [Fox News, 9/14/01] Why Barbara Olson would have needed access to her credit cards to call him on her cell phone is not explained. However, in another interview on the same day, he says that she used a cell phone and that she may have been cut off “because the signals from cell phones coming from airplanes don't work that well.” [CNN, 9/14/01 (C)] Six months later, he claims she called collect “using the phone in the passengers' seats.” [Daily Telegraph, 3/5/02] However, it is not possible to call on seatback phones, collect or otherwise, without a credit card, which would render making a collect call moot. Many other details are conflicting, and Olson faults his memory and says that he “tends to mix the two [calls] up because of the emotion of the events.” [CNN, 9/14/01 (C)] The couple liked to joke that they were at the heart of what Hillary Clinton famously called a “vast, right-wing conspiracy.” Ted Olson has been a controversial choice as Solicitor General since he argued on behalf of Bush before the Supreme Court in the 2000 presidential election controversy before being nominated for his current position.

911=inside job
08-01-2005, 06:05 PM
one time one of my friends called me from his cell phone and said he was on a plane in the air... i really dont know if he was lying or not... the kid was a bit of a liar so... lol.. i allways think about that though...

funny thing about that kid.. we stopped hanging out years ago and then one day when the show pimp my ride started he was on it painting cars... small world... lol

Gold9472
08-01-2005, 06:08 PM
one time one of my friends called me from his cell phone and said he was on a plane in the air... i really dont know if he was lying or not... the kid was a bit of a liar so... lol.. i allways think about that though...

funny thing about that kid.. we stopped hanging out years ago and then one day when the show pimp my ride started he was on it painting cars... small world... lol

I just thought this was an interesting post... from 2004, 3 years after... and they're saying it won't be available for a few more.

Simply_sexy
08-01-2005, 09:41 PM
This is what Skitch and I needed the past 2 years..