This story appears in the
November 2004 issue of
Entrepreneur.
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Many entrepreneurs would rather take care of business than read
the in-flight magazine. But cell phones have long been banned in
the air due to fears they will disrupt planes' systems. Earlier
this year, American Airlines and wireless device manufacturer
Qualcomm conducted a test flight using mobile phones and an
in-cabin cellular base station to send and receive calls and text
messages. Dan Garton, executive vice president of marketing for
American Airlines, expects that commercial availability of
in-flight cell phones is about two years away. It's a little
something for mobile entrepreneurs to look forward to.
That's not the only positive news on the airplane front. The
Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is developing a standardized
method for showing cabin attendants that a device's wireless
transmitter is turned off. That would mean you could still use the
other portions of your wireless devices in the air. For example,
you could still view documents or use the organizer on your
wireless PDA or smartphone. The CEA is also looking into ways to
make it easier and simpler to disable wireless transmitters on
devices across the board.
Visit www.ce.org
for the latest developments. Restrictions could ease over the next
couple of years and make working on the go easier for business
travelers.