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 Following a consultation exercise that began last October, UK regulator Ofcom has given approval to the use of mobile phones on planes flying in the European airspace, and they have issued plans that will allow airlines to offer mobile services on UK-registered aircraft.

Individual airlines can now decide whether to offer the services. But, there will be other regulatory issues that they must overcome before the technology can be fully approved. For example, the European Aviation Safety Agency will need to approve any hardware that would be installed in aircrafts to ensure that it does not interfere with other flight systems.

However, if all goes to plan, passengers will be able to use their mobiles once their plane has reached an altitude of 3,000m or more.  Small mobile phone base stations, called pico cells, will be installed in aircraft, and will be switched on after take-off. These base stations will generate a bubble of coverage in and around the aircraft, and calls made via the pico cell will be routed to terrestrial networks via a satellite link. Across Europe, radio spectrum has already been set aside for the technology, but the services will stop working once aircraft leave European airspace.

To start with, only second generation networks will be offered but a growing interest would mean that third generation services would follow later.  The cost of making a mobile phone call from a plane will be higher than normal, but Ofcom said it will investigate and address any evidence of “excessive charges and abuses of competition” if prices were set unfairly by airlines and mobile networks.

Tags  aircraft airlines altitude approval base cells charges consultation coverage european mobile network ofcom phone pico planes prices station UK