Airline passengers in the European Union (EU) will soon be able to use their phones to full effect as the warning to put phones on airplane mode before take-off is about to end.
The EU said it will enable the “wide-spread deployment of 5G services” on aircraft by designating certain frequencies for in-flight phone connectivity.
The decision will allow airlines to let customers make and receive phone calls, text messages and data just as they would on the ground, the European Commission said in a statement Thursday.
“5G will enable innovative services for people and growth opportunities for European companies,” promises Thierry Breton, the EC’s commissioner for the internal market. “The sky is no longer a limit when it comes to possibilities offered by super-fast, high-capacity connectivity,” he says.
The service will be provided using special network equipment called a pico-cell that connect the in-flight network to the ground via a satellite.
Since 2008, the EU Commission has reserved certain frequency bands for aircraft, allowing some services to offer mid-air internet access. But this service has been slow, as it relied on a satellite network, between the airplane and the ground-based mobile network.
The new system will be able to take advantage of the much faster download speeds provided by 5G, which according to mobile network EE can be over 100Mbps.
International Air Transport Association welcomed the move and said it is assured of the safety because it uses different frequencies (5GHz and over) to those used for cockpit communications which use 4.2-4.4 GHz range for their connectivity.
In 2020, the US Federal Communications Commission dashed plans to allow in-flight voice and data services via mobile wireless frequencies, citign strong opposition on safety and national security grounds.