So long as everything goes to plan, Ryanair should make it possible to use your phone on their flights, with a slight surcharge.
Great, another reason not to fly on Ryanair.
I believe some other airlines are also trying this idea out too.
There are two things that worry me about this. One is the sheer annoyance of people on their phones. If you're on a 4 hour flight and somebody decides they can chat to their mates for most of it, you're going to get pretty bored pretty quickly. Although it is just Ryanair for now, and as somebody mentioned on
the BBC, "Anyone who thinks mobile phone use will intrude on the tranquil, relaxing experience of air travel has clearly never flown with Ryanair."
There is, however, a more worrying problem. The bombs on the trains in Madrid were set off by mobile phones. Allowing mobile phones to work on planes is just going to cause another security risk - not necessarily the same method, but there's room to grow.
I am, however, in full support of being able to have internet access through Wi-Fi on planes. I do not believe this will cause a disturbance and on an eight hour cross-Atlantic flight, will be a real joy.