As many as two-thirds of passengers oppose the move but technology is about to open the way for mobile phone calls on aeroplanes.

The first passengers will be able to make and receive calls this summer. The Emirates airline will allow passengers to use mobiles on some flights to the UK, mainland Europe, Asia and Australasia “from the middle of the year”, and Ryanair plans to allow phones on all its planes from July.

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are considering adopting the service, using technology provided by AeroMobile, a British company. Qantas, the Australian airline, is about to begin a trial of a more advanced AeroMobile system, which will also allow the use of personal digital assistants, such as BlackBerrys, to send e-mails.

Passengers are currently forbidden from using mobile phones and, according to a Gallup poll, most would like it to stay that way. But the call to “please turn off your handsets” could soon be a thing of the past as technology makes it possible to prevent phone signals interfering with on-board navigational tools and ground-level telecommunications.

Despite scepticism among passengers about whether the phone ban is necessary, airlines insist it is more than mere protocol. Some passengers have been prosecuted for switching on in flight.

In 2002 Sergei Lebedev, deputy commercial director of a Russian metal company, was fined £2,500 after he refused to turn off his mobile phone on a flight from Heathrow to Manchester, prompting the pilot to abort a landing.

The problem occurs because when mobiles are switched on, they try to connect with a local network and the more trouble they have connecting, the harder they try, increasing their power output to give a stronger signal, which (if enough phones are on at the same time) can interfere with the aircraft’s navigation and communication systems or telecommunications on the ground.

To solve this problem, AeroMobile, based in Crawley, West Sussex, and its Swiss competitor OnAir create what is essentially a mini-mobile phone network in the aircraft’s cabin. This allows mobiles to connect easily, using less power, and also ensures they do not try to hunt for earthbound networks. “We force the passengers’ mobile phones to operate at their minimum power level and that removes the risk of interference to aircraft systems and importantly, removes the risk of interference to ground telecoms networks,” says David Coiley, a spokesman for AeroMobile.

“If you are in the street or office or just walking around, your phone is probably operating at a power level of around one watt. With our system, the phones operate at around one milliwatt — approximately 1/1000th of typical power.”

Until now passengers wanting to call from on-board have been restricted to seat-back phones. They usually require a credit card, cannot receive inbound calls and can cost up to £6 a minute. With the new AeroMobile and OnAir systems, you will be able to use your own phone as soon as the plane is cruising at about 20,000ft. Call charges will be set by your call provider and are expected to be similar to normal international “roaming” rates, with an average of about £1.80 per minute or about 50p to send a text.

Two cable antennas run along either side of the passenger cabin above the luggage racks. When a call is made, the phone connects with the in-cabin network, the signal is sent to a pico cell — a series of processors that translates the phone’s GSM (global system for mobile communication) signal into one that can be read by a satellite. The message is then relayed from a satellite to the ground, where it connects with the usual phone network. All this happens in less than a second.

Initially only up to six people will be able to use their phones simultaneously because of the limited capacity of most aircraft satellite communication systems, although passengers will be able to send unlimited texts. There will then be scope to allow more calls, but AeroMobile says it plans to set an upper limit of 28 calls at one time. The crew can switch off the system’s voice capability — for example, during night flights when passengers are sleeping — allowing texting only.

A joint venture between Arinc, a US aviation specialist, and Telenor, a Norwegian telecoms company, AeroMobile insists its service is being driven by demand. “Emirates is getting a lot of use of its seat-back phones — about 7,000 calls a month,” says Coiley. “The AeroMobile development is simply a more convenient, more cost-effective way for passengers to communicate. No one wants to be kept awake all night by irritating ringtones but only a small number of people will be able to make calls at one time and the airlines know their passengers extremely well. They see this as a new service to passengers.”

Ryanair sees the mobile phone system as a platform for in-flight entertainment, possibly gambling, and a way to generate additional revenues. “If you want a quiet flight, use another airline,” said Michael O’Leary, the company’s chief executive, bluntly, when he announced the move. “Ryanair is noisy, full and we are always trying to sell you something.”

OnAir, a collaboration between Airbus, the aircraft manufacturer, and SITA, an aviation technology specialist co-owned by members of the aviation industry, is targeting short-haul European operators and also plans trials with Air France, bmi and Portugal’s Tap airline later this year.

Not all technology has translated from drawing board to cabin. Boeing’s Connexion service, which was supposed to make wireless internet connections available on some Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines flights, was discontinued in August. Boeing attributed this failure to a lack of customer interest. “Regrettably, the market for this service has not materialised as had been expected,” lamented Jim McNerney, Boeing’s chief executive. This, coupled with the high costs imposed by satellite operators, made the service commercially unviable.

“Companies need to be sure they are not simply pandering to businessmen’s fantasies,” cautions Coiley. “The problem is often that while in surveys passengers are very keen on the idea of being able to e-mail and browse the web during a flight, when it comes to reality, they are much more likely to just sit back and watch a movie.”

But with Boeing out of the running, a string of companies, including ASiQ of Australia and AirCell of the US, have joined the race to introduce in-flight web browsing and Lufthansa is reportedly seeking partners to help it replace Connexion with a more viable internet service.

It looks as though soon, even with your head in the clouds at 20,000ft, you won’t escape the demands of the office, the beep-beeping of text messages or the drone of a ringtone.

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