This is false: You Don’t Need to Use Airplane Mode on Airplanes (gizmodo.com)
Actually, you do, unless a pico cell is installed on board the aircraft itself. The rule is an FCC rule, not an FAA rule, to protect the cellular system: Mobile phones on aircraft – Wikipedia
At any given moment, there are about 5,000 aircraft flying over the U.S., many of them each having many hundreds of passengers. If their cell phones were on, their phones would be pinging cell sites from high altitudes – causing widespread interference across dozens of cell sites. The cellular system is designed to accommodate phones within the small footprint of each cell – not to have cell phones hitting many dozens of cell sites simultaneously[1]
IF and ONLY IF pico cells are placed on planes, would it be okay to use a phone on the plane. The network itself controls the power level of your phone – and when connected to a pico cell, your phone is commanded to use a very low output power – whose signal is very unlikely to reach the ground. Another alternative is cell phones that have the cell side connection off but use Wi-Fi to connect to an AP on the plane (Set phone to Airplane mode and then turn Wi-Fi only back on.) However, existing network service to/from aircraft does not have sufficient bandwidth to support this – hence, why they say you should not use Wi-Fi calling or streaming video services on board the aircraft.
This article by story teller (his own description of what he does) Maxwell Zeff | LinkedIn is irresponsible. He has a BA in journalism, and does not understand the issues here. His irresponsible story has gone viral on social media with people saying they will now openly defy “the FAA” rules (it’s an FCC rule though). The effect will be to degrade cell service to everyone on the ground. Zeff tries to blame the rule on passengers not wanting people to talk on their cellphones; he does not understand the technical issues.
Gizmodo was a part of Gawker Media, which went bankrupt after a Court ordered a $140 million judgement against the company. The CEO of Gawker Media also filed personal bankruptcy. The assets of the firm were sold to another publisher.
[1] Someone is going to say, but what if I am on top of a mountain? Same problem but very few people are doing that compared to the potentially very large numbers of cell phones carried on board planes. It’s an issue of magnitude. Further, from most mountain areas where people are present (say highways), signals are attenuated by terrain and trees – and the phone’s “coverage” is far less than it would be in the clear at high altitude.
