Mobile Operators - Good Or Greedy?Mobile Operators - Good Or Greedy?

Cingular opposes in-flight use of cell phones because it could annoy its subscribers. What a good corporate citizen, right? Perhaps. But there's another reason for Cingular's opposition that seems to be more about money than good citizenship.

Earlier this month, Cingular and Verizon Wireless sent a joint statement to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) opposing cell phone service in the sky. They claimed that it is possible that in-flight cell systems could cause interference in cellular base stations on the ground. The not-so-subtle threat is that, if a plane flies overhead, you could lose your cellular voice or data connection.

A number of vendors such as Connexion By Boeing want to offer in-flight cell systems. To do that, the vendors install their equipment in airplanes and, not surprisingly, charge for providing the service.

What's important here, though, is who's not charging for the in-air cell service - the wireless operators such as Cingular and Verizon Wireless. I'm not discounting the company's claims of potential interference, but it's also clear that they want a piece of the action. Or, as a Cingular spokesperson told me this week, "the carrier on the ground must be the carrier to provide the service in the air."

This issue keeps getting more and more interesting because of the technical, financial and social challenges it raises. On the one hand, I find it personally gratifying that surveys have shown that most people don't want voice service in the air. Listening to other people's jibbering and jabbering on flights that have already become almost tortuously uncomfortable strikes me as something that Dante would have included in The Inferno had he written it in the last few years.

On the other hand, there's a feel of inevitability about in-flight cell service. Efforts to prevent access and technology almost always fail. I'm guessing that, eventually, some sort of structure will be found for phone calling, such as calling and non-calling sections as used to be the case with smoking.

In the meantime, jockeying for a chunk of the proceeds is as much a part of the real story as the shows of good corporate citizenship. This isn't, however, as much of a rant against Cingular and the other wireless operators as it might sound. Cingular has a good record in encouraging its subscribers to use cell phones safely and courteously. And I also agree, in principle, with their notion that they paid a lot of money for the spectrum and in-flight systems give other vendors free access to that spectrum.

But the wireless operators also are businesses with stockholders. And, in such cases, good corporate citizenship is rarely the prime motivation for any action.