No more airplane mode? EU wants to allow calls on flights

Airline passengers in the European Union (EU) will soon be able to fully use their phones in the air. The European Commission has ruled that airlines can deploy 5G technology on board planes alongside slower mobile data. This could mean that passengers no longer have to put their phones on flight mode - although it is unclear exactly how this will be implemented. The deadline for Member States to make the 5G frequency bands available for aircraft is June 30, 2023. That means people can use all the features of their phone while flying - both for calls and for data-intensive apps that stream music and videos. Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for the Internal Market, said the plan will "enable innovative services for the people" and boost the growth of European companies. "The sky's no longer the limit when it comes to the possibilities offered by high-speed, high-capacity connectivity," he said The end of airplane mode? Since 2008, the EU Commission has reserved certain frequency bands for aircraft, which enable some services to offer Internet access in the air. But that service has historically been slow because it relied on devices connecting people via a satellite between the plane and the ground. The new system will be able to take advantage of 5G's much faster download speeds, which according to cellular network EE can top 100Mbps - allowing a movie to be downloaded in just minutes. Dai Whittingham, chief executive of the UK Air Safety Board, told the BBC that airplane mode was important in the past due to the lack of understanding of how mobile devices affect airplanes. "There was a concern that they could interfere with the automatic flight control systems," he said. "Experience has shown that the risk of interference is very low. The recommendation has always been that the devices should be switched to flight mode during flight. In the US, there are fears that 5G frequencies could disrupt air traffic and even lead to erroneous altitude measurements. According to Whittingham, however, this is not an issue in the UK and EU.