Australia may be allowing mobile phone use on planes soon

Pending the passage of this amendment, you may be able to use that celly at 30,000ft if you’re flying Down Under. The pico cell technology has been in testing for 18 months and there have been no complaints by the airborne or landside portions of the system, so there aren’t any technical barriers. The plan is to only allow SMS and GPRS, which is awesome and neatly wraps up the problem on everybody’s minds, which is that if you’re stuck between two huge businessmen gladhanding over the phone for three hours, you’re liable to throw yourself under the drink cart.

I never talk to anybody on the phone anyway, so this is all gains for me. Sucks for you long talkers and independent phone sex operators, though.

And you see that picture on the right? That’s actually how they do it there.
[Via BGR, IntoMobile and Cellular News]