While I agree that it would be terrible to listen to “20 people on the plane shouting, ‘Can you hear me now,’ all the way from Boston to LA”, I am skeptical that concern about passenger social comfort is the true reason behind this decision.  Most planes already offer in-flight calling, so the “nightmare” scenario Blumenstein describes has been a possibility for some time now (though to be honest, I have never seen anyone use a phone built into the back of a seat or in an arm rest).  I think a much more likely reason that airlines are opposed to VoIP is that it could potentially disrupt any revenue from existing or planned calling services. For instance, though Airfone was not terribly successful, the company showed enough promise that JetBlue acquired them last year, indicating a desire to compete with the larger carriers for data as well as voice service.

Perhaps the most intriguing piece of this story is legislation proposed last year to ban the use of mobile phones during flights (the bill has yet to come to the House floor for a vote). While I don’t know how cell phones could actually establish a connection 30,000 feet in the air, making in-flight calls illegal seems rather extreme to me. The only thing I can come up with is that the airline industry, and the technology providers supplying them, is pushing hard for this. I would also imagine, however, that mobile carriers are completely opposed to the legislation (a Voyant blog post gives a great analysis of the bill). So, what we appear to have is a fight between two very large, entrenched lobbies, with the dubious claim that the public interest is the central concern. I can’t wait to see where this goes…

Inflight calling- for presidents only