Wired for money

So nice of AT&T to place an air phone in every bank of air plane seats so every passenger has close access to getting robbed. Sitting in the lobby of terminal A-13, businessmen on their cell phones chat quickly while waiting for their flight to board. First the orange boarding passes, then the silver, everyone waiting in line for the hour trip to Los Angeles.As I am eating my $2 chips and salsa, I watch as these passengers are about to board a flying robbery. No, no – no one hijacked the plane, just our money.

I decided to wait out the cattle herd, and let all the other passengers board first. Children first, then the professionals, a few old people pass by, and finally I saunter up to the gate. I hand over my silver boarding pass and walk into the jet-way.The line passes and I board the plane, touch the outer skin for luck, and ask the flight attendant to check my binder with the baggage. She laughs quietly at my bad joke and glares at the cellular phone I’m placing in my pocket.

My location for the duration of the trip will be the middle of a six pack. The group of seats on Southwest that have two sets of three seats facing each other. I joined the male six pack, mostly professional guys, and one with a portable ham radio. As I am making my place in the middle of the six pack a gentle voice over the loudspeaker reminds all the passengers that once in flight all cellular telephones must be turned off, but for our convenience AT&T has provided air phones.

Can you say monopoly? Now my quick flight to Los Angeles was only an hour long, I could wait until I reached the ground to use my cellular phone and call my editor; but then I thought about Mom. Not my Mom, but the mother calling her son in flight from Sacramento to New York. She is trying to help her son with his pre-algebra, and is getting charged $2.99 a minute. The average algebra equation takes about 10 minutes to solve. That’s $29.90 to solve an algebra equation with a lot of static.

Now I understand that the FCC has regulations that must be followed for the safety of passengers. As the chatty fellow with the pocket ham radio sitting next to me explained, “Plane operation is controlled by the same types of frequencies as cellular phones,” he said as the flight attendant told him to turn off his pocket ham radio.

However the telecommunications industry is booming. Multimillion-dollar satellites now allow us to communicate at all hours from all places orbiting our planet. Communication is becoming faster, easier, and cheaper than ever before. Cellular phone companies market to college students quite often. Advertising the only phone needed in life with an assortment of colors, all under the subheading of affordable. $2.99 a minute for an air phone isn’t affordable.

Why can’t we use our own cell phones in the air? Obviously the technology exists, air phones have existed for decades and are encouraged by airlines. However, AT&T seems to be the main beneficiary by getting $2.99 from us per minute while our prohibited cellular phones and 1,000 free peak minutes sit idly by.