[2008.08.09] 飞机上电话继续使用：空中通话俱乐部

Phones on planes, continued
飞机上电话继续使用

The dial-high club
空中通话俱乐部

Aug 7th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Mobile phones on planes may not be as annoying as some people think
在飞机上使用手机也许没有人们所想象的那样令人讨厌

AS AIRLINES struggle with high fuel prices, they have been looking for new ways to generate “ancillary revenues”. This week JetBlue, an American airline, said it would start charging $7 for a pillow and blanket on some flights. Other airlines are demanding extra to check in luggage, or for more legroom. And as the regulatory hurdles to using mobile phones on planes continue to fall, airlines are salivating at the idea of charging passengers $2.50 a minute to make calls and 50 cents for a text message.

当各航空公司在高油价中挣扎时，他们也一直在寻找新的途径来获得”辅业收入”。本周美国航空公司JetBlue宣布它将在一些飞机上以7美元价格出租枕头和毯子。而其它一些航空公司也对行李登记、获取更大的放脚空间等服务收取额外的费用。随着在飞机上使用移动电话限制的降低，航空公司非常渴望向乘客开展这样的业务：打一分钟电话2.5美元，发一条短信50美分。

It should come as no surprise that Ryanair, the leading European low-cost carrier, which generated 488m euro ($690m) in ancillary revenue last year, is one of the most enthusiastic proponents of in-flight calling. It plans to fit its entire fleet with the necessary equipment, which is being provided by OnAir, an in-flight communications provider backed by Airbus, Europe’s planemaking giant. Oman Air, TAP Portugal, bmi and AirAsia are also adopting OnAir’s technology. AeroMobile, a rival technology provider, has signed up airlines including Emirates, Qantas and Turkish Airlines.

欧洲领先的低成本航空公司Ryanair去年取得了4.88亿欧元(约合6.90亿美元)的辅业收入，毫无疑问他将是开展空中通话的最热心支持者之一。它计划将在整个机队上安装由OnAir提供的相关设备，OnAir是一家受到欧洲飞机制造巨头空客支持的通讯设备提供商。阿曼航空、葡萄牙的TAP、英伦航空、亚洲航空也都正采用这种技术。与Ryanair 相竞争的技术提供商AeroMobile已经和阿联酋航空、澳洲航空和土耳其航空签订了订货协议。

The technology works (handsets talk to a tiny base-station, or “picocell” on the plane, which connects to the phone network via satellite); safety concerns and worries about interference with ground-based networks have been overcome (though phones will have to be switched off for take-off and landing); and airlines are convinced of the business case. But what do passengers think? Many have expressed concern at having to sit next to tedious blabbermouths.

这种技术是可行的（飞机上的手机与一个微型基站或者”微微蜂窝结构”相连，而后者又接入卫星电话网络）；干扰地面基地网络的安全忧虑也已经被克服了（尽管飞机起飞和着陆时电话不得不关闭）；航空公司很满意这种商业模式。但是乘客会怎么想呢？很多人已经表达了一些忧虑：他们将不得不坐在滔滔不绝的”长舌者”旁边。

So the results from the first trials of in-flight communications equipment are reassuring. Emirates has installed AeroMobile’s equipment on ten of its aircraft since March. On July 30th AeroMobile said reaction had been “overwhelmingly positive”, with around half of passengers switching on their phones during flights. Text messaging proved most popular, and the average length of voice calls was just 2½ minutes. Most of these calls were made on daytime flights; the number on night flights was “minimal”.

这种通讯设备在飞机上的首次试验结果表明是可靠的。从三月以来，阿联酋航空航空已经在它的十架飞机上安装了AeroMobile的这种设备。7月30日 AeroMobile表示航空公司对这种设备的反映非常热烈，大约有一半的乘客在飞行过程中接通了他们的手机。而手机短信是最受欢迎的，平均的语音通话长度是两分半钟。这些电话大部分是在白天航班上打的；而在夜间航班上的电话数目则很小。

Air France, which has been testing OnAir’s gear on short-haul flights in Europe and north Africa, says 80% of those polled wanted the service to be deployed across the airline’s entire fleet. On a typical flight about 100 text messages were sent or received and ten megabytes of data transferred by a dozen BlackBerry users. Passengers said they liked being able to inform people on the ground of changes in their arrival details.

法国航空公司已经在欧洲和北非的短程航班上测试了OnAir的设备，它表示，80%的受访者希望这项服务能在所有的航线飞机上都开展起来。在一架测试的班机上乘客大约收发了100条信息，并有12名使用黑莓手机的乘客发送了约10兆的数据。乘客们表示他们喜欢能够通知人们关于航班到达变化的信息。

In short, fears that in-flight telephony will be a nuisance, rather than a benefit, seem to be wide of the mark. That is good news for passengers hoping to get some sleep-and for airlines desperately looking for new sources of revenue.

总之，在飞行过程中通电话是件令人讨厌的事情，而不会有任何好处，对于这种担忧其实是离谱的。不过对那些想在飞机上休息的乘客来说没有电话是个好消息，相反对那些拼命寻找新的收入来源的航空公司来说开通空中电话才是个好消息。

译者：jyjnl     http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=13214&extra=page%3D1