Mobiles join the mile high club

A US mobile phone company has worked out a way for airline passengers to use mobile phones without scrambling in-flight systems.

Mobile calls are currently banned by aviation authorities to avoid disruption to the plane's electronics and cockpit communications.

Phone companies are also concerned that in-flight calls could clog towers and antennae trying to process the signals.

But a new system developed by AirCell could reduce mobile phones' power and limit the number of handsets in use at any one time.

The Colorado-based company plans to charge a fee of up to £1 a minute for using the service, about a third of the cost of airline pay-phones currently available on many flights.

An AirCell spokesman told USAToday that his company hoped to have the technology ready by the end of 2004.

Several airlines have expressed an interest in the scheme. A spokeswoman for United Airlines confirmed that it is working on enabling customers to use their own mobiles.