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The FCC, obviously tired of Americans' deep affection for the government, is considering permitting airlines to allow cell service — and, apparently, voice calls — on flights. This is how this horrible idea will work.
There's no law against making a phone call from a plane right now. The trick is getting your voice to the ground. There are two ways of doing this — and two reasons that it's not happening.
Over a cell network. This is how you use your phone all the time: you have reception, you place the call, the phone connects to a cell tower that is itself connected to a series of cell towers, you start talking. The challenge on a plane is that reception from ground-based towers is often poor, meaning that even if you turned your phone on while flying across the country, you wouldn't get a usable signal.
Over an internet connection. This is what's known as "voice over internet protocol" or VoIP. Think Sype. Your voice is converted to data, that data is sent over a network, and the person on the other end has software that converts the data back into audio. There's no technical reason (besides iffy bandwidth) preventing you from making VoIP calls right now. The Wire spoke with Steve Nolan of Gogo Wireless, and he explained that the company has a series of what amount to large Wi-Fi base stations, aimed up at the sky across the country. When you connect, you're connecting directly to a receiver on the ground.