FCC Conferring With Other Agencies On In-Flight Phone Use, Chairman Says

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler defended from a technical standpoint the agency’s December NPRM on allowing in-flight phone use while emphasizing the agency is involved in coordination that could include a ban of in-flight conversations. “The NPRM represents only the beginning of a process to consider carefully whether and how we should revise our rules to give airlines the ability to allow passengers to use mobile wireless services while flying above 10,000 feet,” Wheeler told lawmakers in an Oct. 31 response the agency released Friday. “The NPRM makes clear that nothing in the proposal would limit the ability of airlines to ban wireless voice conversations in-flight.” The FCC is conferring with the Department of Transportation in its own assessment of whether such calls should be banned, he said. The FCC has “created a formal input process to examine safety and security matters,” Wheeler said. “This includes a federal multi-stakeholder working group that FCC staff convened to consider national security and safety-related matters related to in-flight wireless services. The working group includes subject matter experts from the DOT, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Justice (DOJ), and other relevant federal agencies.”