It appears there have been a couple of surveys in the last few weeks where people have been asked about mobile phone calls on aeroplanes. Overall, both surveys showed most people are not keen on the idea of “I’M ON THE PHONE” calls taking place in the, air, but generally, those same people support the idea of instant messaging and data access. The Yahoo survey in the UK reported the following numbers:

• 87% of people would like voice calls banned
• 38% would like SMS support (of course, that means 62% don’t want that either)
• 28% would like data support (whether 72% want it banned, or just wouldn’t use it isn’t clear)

In other parts of the same survey, 49% said email would be useful (I’m not sure how the 21% who don’t want data are going to get their email!), and 14% said they would like to check the weather.

Equally, a US survey by Harris Interactive (but still commissioned by Yahoo it would seem) came up with similar results:

• three quarters said cellphone support should be limited to “non-talking” features
• 69% said if calls were allowed, there should be a “talking area” on the phone, ie you only disturb other people on the phone, and not the person in the seat next to you

Of course, it’s only in the last year that the network operators have realised they can make real money from data services priced at sensible levels, so whether the airlines listen to surveys like these, or just plough ahead with voice only services at very high roaming rates remain to be seen. Another point to note; we don’t think the survey included price within the question; consider these two questions:

• Would you like to check the weather and receive your email on your phone whilst in the air, for a flat fee of £1 for the whole journey?
• Would you like to check the weather and receive your email on your phone whilst in the air, paying a ridiculous £10 per Mb? (which isn’t far off Orange’s old UK rate of course)

We suspect people will want the first scenario, and the airlines will want the second scenario…

This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Gadgets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.