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Company wins patent to provide cell phone service aboard planes

AirCell wins patent for cellphone technology
Louisville company targets in-flight calls

Like it or not, airline passengers soon could be yakking on their cellphones during flights. And a Louisville company could help make that happen.

By Jennifer Beauprez, Denver Post Business Writer

AirCell was awarded a U.S. patent Tuesday for its technology, which uses airliner-mounted radio transceivers to connect callers with any of 135 antenna sites across the nation.

Cellphones do sometimes work now during airline flights at low altitudes, as witnessed by the flood of cell calls from passengers aboard doomed flights on Sept. 11, 2001.

But the Federal Communications Commission currently prohibits the use of cellphones during airplane flights, because of concerns that electronic emissions might interfere with equipment aboard the planes.

Travelers don’t always want to let go of their gadgets, however. Some continue talking on their phones until the doors of the plane close. Some passengers even hide handheld pagers in books to discreetly send e-mail during flights.

Cash-strapped airlines, looking for additional revenue streams, have noticed.

United Airlines recently announced it would offer in-flight e-mail for $16 a flight via the Verizon Communications’ Airfone service available on most of its planes.

Lufthansa and British Airlines also signed deals to provide high-speed Internet access on board its planes via Boeing’s Connexions satellite service. Pricing for the service hasn’t been set, but for international flights it may be $30 for unlimited use, a Boeing spokesman said.

And both American Airlines and Continental Airlines now allow cellphones and pagers to be turned on right after a flight has landed.

Even the Federal Aviation Administration asked a Washington nonprofit group, RTCA Inc., to study whether onboard communications truly threaten airplane communications.

"The industry is realizing that the time is here and the technologies are mature where it makes sense to do this," said Bill Peltola, AirCell’s vice president of marketing. "We’re in a very strong position to be a leader in this area."

Peltola said AirCell hopes to use its new patent to develop a next-generation technology for airborne cellphone service that would be available in three years. The company still must prove to the FCC that its technology doesn’t interfere with cockpit controls.

AirCell is familiar with Washington politics. It worked for 10 years to get special regulatory permission for its earlier technology, which provides pre-installed phones inside corporate jets. The phones rely on a wireless network built by myriad cellphone providers on the ground.

AirCell, which has 50 employees, now has 1,400 aircraft using its systems, Peltola said.

Frontier Airlines plans to be the first commercial airline to test AirCell’s pre-installed phones this summer.

The service, which requires the swipe of a credit card, will cost $1.50 a minute, compared with the $3.99-per-minute charge of Verizon’s Airfone service. Verizon uses a different network technology to process its air-to-ground calls.

Yet few passengers use such airplane phones because they’re too expensive, said Henry Harteveldt, an analyst who follows the airline industry for Forrester Research.

"AirCell is cutting the costs by 75 percent, which is fantastic, but even so, at $1 a minute you’re going to think twice, ‘Do I really need to make that call?"’ Harteveldt said.

Plus, there is little privacy in airliners, he said.

"Do you want someone eavesdropping on your conversation?" he asked. "Nothing you say on the airplane is confidential."

What’s more, some people don’t want to hear those phone conversations.

"When I’m on a plane, I don’t want to be bothered by other people’s conversations," said Katie Campbell, a marketing executive who lives in Vail.

"People can get very belligerent on the phone. The last thing we need is half the people on the plane screaming at their clients," she said. "There’s plenty of time to get on the phone when you’re off the plane."

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~33~1501681,00.html

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