Cellular Phone Equipment. Toronto Pearson airport (YYZ) to "ban" cell phone use?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. A video news-crawl story says that Pearson airport will ban cell-phone use starting this Wednesday. I suppose that this is someone's idea of improving business air-travel.

A. Popular methods include RF-absorbent building materials, and "intelligent jammers" that identify themselves as cell towers but do not facilitate placing or receiving calls. The brute-force method is to just generate white noise on the cell frequencies. This is the easiest for do-it-yourself jamming as practiced by those who prefer to keep a no-cell-phone radius around them at all times. All but the first of these methods are illegal in the US. Personally I'd be just as happy if they were relegated to specified zones like smokers. Banning them outright seems extreme. I didnt think they were banning them. I thought the problem was only spotty coverage when inside the terminal area. There was a protracted set of negotiations with the main cell providers to improve the coverage by adding some extra nodes closer to Pearson, but it apparently fell through. I hardly think *banning* cell phones would enamour them to the flying public. Airlines are already trying to cope with the loss of business travelers (the big money makers). Not being able to use a cell phone, blackberry, or other communication device in the airport will simply drive business traffic from that airport. I've got to tell you: there are more stupid people in the world than I ever thought possible. Airport police and other federal agencies in Toronto are stocking up on two-way radios as Pearson International Airport is slated to become the first world-class airport to ban cellphone service. The Greater Toronto Airports Authority said power will be cut Wednesday to communications equipment owned by companies that provide airport cellular service. It said Rogers Wireless, Bell, Telus and Microcell failed to come up with $1 million each to improve cellular signal strength. The power cut will also silence pagers, fax machines and Internet access. Officers of 14 federal agencies at the airport have been scrambling for two-way radios, which they say aren't secure and will threaten to national security. An authority spokesman said emergency and security procedures won't be affected, since two-way radios are Pearson's main source of communication.

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