European Carriers To Test In-Flight Cell Phones

Some passengers are all for it. Others sardonically figure it's just what they need -- a fat passenger next to them, a caterwauling child behind them, and someone in front shouting into a cell phone. In Europe, at least, air travel is about to get a lot noisier.

Two European airlines say they'll initiate in-flight cell phone service late next year in a pair of separate trials designed to see if the technology will work -- and will be tolerated by both other passengers and flight crew members.

Portugal's TAP Air and Britain's BMI will both use OnAir's voice and text service for their trials of cellular services. OnAir hopes to be "on the air" with in-flight cell service in 2007 worldwide -- except in North America, according to OnAir CEO George Cooper.

"With both airlines, initially there will be a couple of airplanes — two or three airplanes — equipped with this system," Cooper told the Associated Press. "During that three months, we'll all be evaluating how it's going, what the usage is, how we handle the crew issues and so on."

TAP will offer the service aboard some of its Airbus A321s, while BMI will try the concept in its A320s. Passengers will be able to turn on their phones when they turn on their CD and DVD players -- once the aircraft reaches 10,000 feet, according to Cooper.

"This trial will guide us on usage patterns and some of the social issues in using mobile phones on aircraft," bmi Chief Executive Nigel Turner told the AP. "It will also help us to confirm the business case for rolling the service out across the remainder of the fleet."

But passengers who bring their phones will also need to bring their wallets. Service will cost between $2.00 and $2.50... per minute.

FMI: www.tenzing.com