Editorial: Why cell phones still can’t be used on airplanes

I don’t understand. Airplane mode is okay  on airplanes, but cell phone use isn’t. I don’t see much change in policy here. As the New York Times reported, “The administrator of the F.A.A., Michael P. Huerta, said he expected that, with rare exceptions, airlines would allow the use of tablets, MP3 players and smartphones in ‘airplane mode,’ with their cell network connections turned off.” Airplane mode gives the user access to an electronic device but without an outside connection (I almost said,”without an outside line,” a reference to making a phone call). The mode has existed for some time, and flight attendants always advised passengers that their devices had to be in that mode during flight.
 
Person using airplane mode. (Image via apple.answers.com)
The Times story continues, “While flight attendants have no effective way to determine whether a cellphone or tablet is really in airplane mode during flight, Mr. Huerta said, “There’s no safety problem if they’re not, but you’re going to arrive at your destination with a dead battery,” because the device would continue looking for a cell connection and would not find it.”
Is that it? Cell phone service simply will not be available in flight as it is usually unavailable underground in the New York City subway system? And yet airlines are saying that they will install Wi-Fi at low altitudes as well as high. Isn’t cell phone service available via Wi-Fi?
The issue was always electromagnetic interference (EMI), but as equipment moved from analog to digital that issue has been dealt with, as the following paragraphs from a previous article I wrote show. EMI has been a major concern since the early days of radio, in the 1920s, and plenty of effort has gone into curbing it.
“The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), whose headache it is to regulate electronic noise, had asked the FAA to ban cell phones, but when engineers solved the analog problem, the FCC is no longer the reason you can't use your cell phone during flight. As Mark Nelson in Media & Tech points out, “Although there has never been any evidence found of aircraft malfunction from electromagnetic interference (EMI) from a consumer electronic device compliant with Part 15 of the FCC code governing EMI emissions, there is no proof that it's NOT dangerous either. Theory says it could happen, but many hypothetical events could happen that don't. The FAA was just erring on the side of caution, and people were already abiding by the ban on in-flight analog cell phone use anyway.”
“Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is electronic noise, which is never wanted in an electronic system and can be downright dangerous when it interferes with critical electronics, such as medical equipment or airplane guidance and communications systems. EMI takes several forms, with related acronyms RFI and TVI, radio frequency interference and television interference.
“As Mel Berman of TDK-Lambda Americas pointed out in Electronic Products Magazine in October 2008, ‘EMI can be in form of conducted EMI, which means the noise travels along electrical conductors, wires, printed-circuit traces, or electronic components such as transformers, inductors, capacitors, semiconductors, and resistors. Electrical noise can also be in the form of radiated EMI (RFI), noise that travels through the air or free space as magnetic fields or radio waves. RFI is usually controlled by providing metal shielding that contains the magnetic fields or radio waves within the equipment’s enclosure.’
“Thanks to the abundance of attention EMI has gotten over the years, electronic devices emit less noise and plane equipment is better insulated. (If you want to immerse yourself in the progress the electronics industry is making in curbing EMI, click here for Electronic Products Magazine ’s extensive coverage of the topic over the years.) Analog cell phones were more of a problem than digital, and today all cell phones are digital since 2008, when the last analog cell phone network was deactivated and dismantled. Digital networks eliminate crosstalk by design — and crosstalk is yet another form of EMI.”
EMI on airplanes is serious, as it is in the medical field. Another paragraph in my previous article points out, “In a publication on pacemakers, the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), says, ‘The American Heart Association has a page on Pacemakers. It contains the following quote: “CB [citizen band] radios, electric drills, electric blankets, electric shavers, ham radios, heating pads, metal detectors, microwave ovens, TV transmitters and remote control TV changers, in general, have not been shown to damage pacemaker pulse generators, change pacing rates or totally inhibit pacemaker output.”’”
So is it just me or is this news that electronic devices will now be allowed in airplane mode no news at all. Hasn’t EMI been dealt with sufficiently to allow cell phone use in airplanes?