Airplane mode hasn't been necessary for nearly 20 years, but the myth persists.
  • Airplane mode’s persistence stems from outdated concerns about phone interference, despite limited evidence supporting its necessity for safety.
  • European flights now allow calls and data with pico-cells ensuring no interference; US flights maintain bans due to air rage concerns.
  • FCC’s ban on in-flight cell phone use in 1991 persists, fueled by fears of air rage, not technical interference issues.
  • stanka@lemmy.ml
    5·
    10 months ago

    I worked at a cellular base-station company back in the oughts. The technical reason back then was that phones hopping between towers so rapidly caused fake capacity spikes. It took just about long enough to negotiate a connection to a tower and suddenly boom, phone has moved on to the next tower, leaving a binch of timeouts on the old tower.

    Hundreds of phones doing this for each plane caused problems. Now the negotiation is faster and tower capacity is much higher, so no big deal.