JetBlue May Add In-Flight Text-Messaging

AW COME ON NOW! EVEN ON THE PLANE! I LOVE MY CELL PHONE, I AM ALWAYS ON IT, BUT I MUST ADMIT I ENJOY THE FACT THAT WHEN I GET ON A FLIGHT, I AM FORCED TO RELAX AND STAY QUIET FOR A FEW HOURS. TEXTING IS A GOOD IDEA BUT IT'S ALL ANNOYING IN THE LONG RUN. I DON'T WANT TO PAY TO SIT IN TIGHT QUARTERS AND LISTEN TO OTHER PEOPLE'S CONVERSATIONS. IF THEY HAVE TO DO THIS, MAKE IT LIKE A "NO SMOKING SECTION" AND DESIGNATE SPECIAL SEATS TO ONLY THOSE TO WISH TO USE THEIR CELLS DURING FLIGHT. FAIR ENOUGH. AND THEN THE PEOPLE WILL COMPLAIN ABOUT THAT. PEOPLE JUST DON'T WANT TO FOLLOW RULES AND UNFORTUNATELY AMERICA IS ALLOWING THIS BEHAVIOR AND THAT IS WHY OUR COUNTRY IS THE WAY IT IS TODAY.

Welcome news but please, please never allow cell phone use!
Now if they can eliminate carry on to only pocket books and brief cases, boarding and "de-planing" will be minutes. Jetblue is a great carrier.
I would also like to see BYOB of wine for air travel!!!Or a better wine selection!

THE ONLY REASON JET-BLUE WANTS TO BE A BLE TO USE TEXING, IS FOR THEIR PROFIT LINE. THE FCC HAS NOT PROVEN TO ME THE PHONES MESSES W/THE AIRPLANE SYSTEMS. WHEN I FLEW FROM KY. TO NEWARK AFTER WE WHERE AIRBORN, THEY TURN OFF EVERYBODYS PHONE AND JUST BEFORE THEY LANDED IN NEWARK,NJ, THEY TURNED THE PHONES SO THE PASSENGER COULD CALL THEIR LOVE ONES AND SEE IF THEY WHERE AT THE AIRPORT WAITING.SO WHERES THE PROBLEM?

You have to give them credit, they are trying to be innovative and give the customer something different at least.

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Good News John. JetBlue DOES allow you to BYOB, they only ask that you give it to a flight attendant, as they have to serve any in-air alcohol to the passengers. It's some kind of FAA reg, and they have to monitor alcohol usage, as they need to know there's not an intoxicated person in the emergency row.

And Terrance, as far as your comments about JB recovering from the Feb storm, that was a small bilp on the radar. Their flights are still full, every one of them. so those that have chosen another carrier, have only allowed more people to fly on JB.

As an airline pilot for a major US carrier, I thought I could add my comments so those that don't understand the ramifications of cell phone usage on an airplane in flight might have a better understanding of why we don't want them used.
First of all the odds of a cell phone disturbing the flight of an aircraft is slim. There is , however, a caviat. Most cell phone technology made in the USA or Japan is very well built and the electronics are very well shielded to prevent signals from being generated (harmonics) that would cause a problem for an airplane. However, Some cell phone technology comes from nations that use substandard shielding or none at all.
These phones would still have only a minor effect on older aircraft as they are not of the fly by wire technology. Fly by wire is a technology that uses electrical computer generated signals that when the pilot moves the control stick in the cockpit it isn't actually attached to the flight control by a steel cable. The control stick is a ttached to a flight data computer. This computer interprets what the pilot is saying by the amount and speed of the stick movement. This FDC then sends a signal to a Flight control computer via a data cable. This FCC then actually talks to a hydraulic system and tells that system to move the control. All of this at the speed of light. These computers can and have been effected by substandard cell phone technology. Fortunately the airplane was high enough that it was recoverable. So please if you get on any newer technology aircraft like an Airbus or a Boeing777, you don't want to take a chance that your phone has after market parts. You could pay the price you were not interested in paying when you bought it.

have you ever seen mythbusters? they totally busted this "no cell phones on planes" deal. sidenote: they also busted no cell phones at gas stations.

Once they have phased out all anilog cell phones the risk to navigation is over. I don't want to listen to 150 other people yelling into there cell phone, especially on speaker phone attachment.They need to put a rule of vibrate only on cell nphones , some of the rings and songs they play are anoying as hell.
I've been text messaging from the air for years, I just hope the pilot isn't up front doing the same.

regarding Jet Blue allowing BYOB. How do you expect to get a bottle of wine past TSA when you can't even get a bottle of water through? This should be obvious

Funny how this is a big deal years after there was supposedly numerous in air calls made on 9-11-01.

The unfortunate part of the debate is that the FAA hasn't taken the time to explain to everyone what is going on withh cell phones and air travel. The problem is the FCC who does not want cell phones tying up the ground based radio network with cell phones trying to get the best signal from six miles up. A solution was being considered that would allow a small transmitter/receiver to be used on a plane that would allow people to make (for a fee) cell calls from their own phones because they would be communicating with the onboard "tower" which would not affect the ground. In the end, the FCC didn't feel that the solution was 100% and elected to continue the ban on cell phones inflight.

Whether cell phones will work from an airplane or not has never been the question, but rather what the impact would be to the ground based network. Whether the cell phones are analog or digital, whether they are being used for text messaging or not, or even if the cell phone is simply turned on, it is creating a problem on the ground as the towers track the phone and hand it off to the next tower that has the greatest signal strength. Unfortunately, unlike when you are on the ground, instead of three or five towers tracking your phone, you may have as many as 200. Ever try and make a call and there are no circuits available? Did you just assume it was a lot of people making calls at the same time from the same general area? Ask your cell phone carrier what the capacity of a single tower is and then ask whether you are in an airport flight path or FAA city pair route. You are probably already seeing the effects of people who don't bother to turn off their cell phones or have decided that they are special and can use their phone for calls or text messaging even though they have been asked to turn them off.

The use of any electronic device during takeoff and landing is an FAA requirement because of two major incidents caused by onboard consumer electronic devices. One affecting a British Air flight and the other a Continental flight. Rather than even attempt to identify which cell phones, gameboys, iPods, MP3 playes, CD players, et al that might be affecting the navigation equipment, without even getting into those devices that are not working according to their manufactured radtiating frequencies, the FAA has decided to err (thankfully) on the side of caution and turn off all consumer electronic devices during takeoff and landing. After the plane is down, the risk is over and it is fine to allow people to use cell phones to call whoever they would like, but not until then.

I have been using my wireless card for 6 months now and if you have verizon, you can open your VZManager and text right from the interface using your laptop keyboard.

I'd like to state my opinion on a few blunt points....1) Why would anyone HAVE to use the internet on a flight. It's a flight which means a minor time frame that will get you from point A to point B. The internet can wait. As can the cell phone usage, it can wait, I don't want to hear a bunch of people around me yapping on their phones, I have all to do to handle driving around these people on the highways, I don't want to sit next to them. The only technical device I would allow on any plane is a laptop NOT connected to the internet (to do work, speadsheets, etc, and watch DVD movies), the only other device I would allow next to the laptop is a DVD player, got to pass the time somehow! Thank you.

Does anyone really want to hear ringing phones and loud conversation when they are in such a confined space? (Some people seem to yell into their cell phones.) Texting seems like a good solution.

I wish the folks at the FCC would step into the 21st century and hire the Mythbusters team to explain the pros and cons of in-flight cell phone use. Jamie and Adam (of Mythbusters) proved that an active cell phone does not disrupt navigational equipment; the conclusion that was reached is that the ban on cell phone use while in-flight is for security reasons (eg no phone calls down to the terrorist on the ground, please!). As long as obnoxious voice calls aren't made, what's the problem with texting?

Allowing cell phone use on airplanes would be unbearablely annoying. People, in general, are jerks & have no clue as to how annoying they are. The people who think they are important & discuss their business so everyone can hear are the biggest jerks.
Why do people feel the need to yell into their cellphone? Do they do this on the phone at home?
People have lost their civility & we need to have rules to control them.

"As long as obnoxious voice calls aren't made, what's the problem with texting?"

What a comment. How does one determine which calls are obnoxious and which aren't? And who would ever admit to being a cell phone boor, especially in this age of entitlement and "me first" attitude. Keep the cell phones off the planes, period. For years people existed without them, and it's not the end of the world if someone has to wait for a phone call.

Myth-busters figured out that cell phones does not interferred with ground communications. What they did NOT accomplish is how to shut the idiot up that is sitting next to you shouting into his cell phone about the party last night.

No cell phones. How annoying it would be to hear all those phones ringing and chatting going on. I enjoy talking to the people on the plane not to listen to their conversation on the cell. It may also be more dangerous by allowing this. Who knows what is in anyone's mind anymore.

As someone that flies 3 times a week I can tell you that I would not like to see all the idiots up there calling some idiot on the ground yelling "guess where I'm calling from". I see enough of it waiting to board the plane. Texting would be fine except we all know the minute cell phones are allowed to be left on during flight incoming calls would start ad nauseum. And lets not forget about all the "entitled" who would make voice calls.