FCC chairman wants to scrap proposal to allow in-flight use of mobile phones

Federal regulators are in the process of withdrawing a proposal that would have allowed air travelers to use their cellphones at high altitude, following a decision yesterday to reverse the proposal, which the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said, was ''ill-conceived''.

The proposal, which was introduced in 2013 by then-chairman of the FCC Tom Wheeler, sought to lift the ban on the use of cellphones on planes over concerns of cellular signal interference with pilot radios. The concerns had been minimised thanks to new advances in in-flight communications, Wheeler had argued at the time.

Under the proposal, passengers would be required to keep their phones turned off or on airplane mode during takeoff and landing, but they could switch on their connections at cruising altitude.

The decision yesterday to reverse the proposal came from Wheeler's successor, Ajit Pai. In a statement, he called the plan ''ill-conceived'', and added that he did not believe it served the public interest.

The proposal to allow in-flight use of mobile phones had run into much opposition from the public, especially from trade groups representing pilots and flight attendants.

"I do not believe that moving forward with this plan is in the public interest," Pai said in a statement yesterday. "Taking it off the table permanently will be a victory for Americans across the country who, like me, value a moment of quiet at 30,000 feet."

Wheeler, had said there were "no technical reasons to prohibit such technology to operate," but opted to let the airlines take a call on the issue.

Airline industry groups and labor unions had rejected the idea outright as worries increased about noisy flights and other disturbances.

Pai, who was appointed by former president Obama to the FCC in May 2012, would need two other agency commissioners to sign off before the 2013 plan was officially squashed, according to Reuters. This would, however, not affect current policies that allowed passengers to use their mobile gadgets during flights, as long as their cellular connections were in ''airplane mode.''