KEY POINTS:
I love that cocoon of silence when you embark on an aircraft, one uninterrupted by ringing phones or the arrival of text messages.
For however long your flight is - one hour to Wellington or the 24-hour long-haul to London - you're virtually untouchable. Business people especially must
love it. It's a chance to reflect and relax, without being harried by colleagues and customers, even if being out of touch can be inconvenient.
Well, the silence is soon to be shattered. Fixed satellite phones have existed for some time on planes, and many airlines allow people to surf the internet and send emails from their seat-back TV screens.
Now the technology is in place to allow passengers to make and receive calls on their own mobile phones, connect to a wi-fi wireless hotspot in the sky using their laptops and receive emails on Blackberries and hand-held computers.
I can see it now - cruising at 20,000 feet while the entrepreneur to my left participates in a conference call and the teenager to my right thumbs a never-ending stream of text messages into her mobile.
European polls show flyers are less than enthusiastic about the move to allow mobile use on planes, and the US Federal Communications Commission last week decided to maintain a ban on mobile phone use on planes, worried about possible interference with communications systems on the ground.
But airliners such as Emirates and Ryanair are already preparing to introduce technology this year that will allow mobile calls to be made from planes without causing interference. Some clever telecommunications networking underpins the proposed services.
The airlines will effectively build small mobile phone base stations, or "pico cells", into the cabins of their planes, running antenna wires through the cabins. The cell site is very low powered, but a good connection is assured because of the closeness of passengers to the antenna.
Voice calls and even packets of data carrying your text messages, email and internet traffic are sent to a satellite transmitter built into the plane, beamed up to a satellite and sent down to the mobile network, where they are routed to their destination.
Airlines are currently quite touchy on the issue of mobile phones being left on in the air, and for good reason.
Constantly seeking a network to connect to, a mobile phone emits a signal that can interfere with a plane's communications systems. One phone left switched on probably isn't enough to cause a problem, but if a dozen phones are constantly searching for signals, the interference could become an issue.
The company leading the way in developing the technology allowing safe mobile phone use in the air is AeroMobile, and it and the airlines envisage the sending and receiving of calls and text messages at prices comparable to charges you pay when roaming.
I sent my first email from the air on an Emirates flight last year. I swiped my credit card, paid US$1 and punched the email on to the touch screen in front of me. I dared not make a call at US$5 a minute. At cheaper prices, and if you are able to use your own device - I can see the appeal of connecting from 20,000 feet. But there are places where some technology should be off limits. Give me that cocoon of silence, any day.
