Photo: Álvaro Ibáñez/Flickr
You’ve heard those conversations. Every single time a flight lands, the guy across the aisle or the woman right beside you immediately has to pull out the phone and announce, “We just landed. What? I said we just landed! LANDED. WHAT? LAN-DED. I JUST LANDED. WHAT?!” It’s the same script at the same ear-splitting volume every time. But what if you had to listen to one side of a stranger’s phone call for the entire flight?
A FlyerTalk member wrote a forum post after his friend was shushed by a flight attendant for making a WhatsApp call during a United flight. The flight attendant reportedly said that the call “was breaking the law,” even though it was made through the plane’s Wi-Fi network, not through a cell network. The original poster asked for clarification, wondering whether that kind of call really was breakin’ the law, Judas Priest-style.
As it turns out, passengers can’t use in-flight Wi-Fi to make VoIP (Voiceover Internet Protocols) calls, whether they’re using their phones or their own laptops — and VoIP services and apps include Skype, WhatsApp, Viber and even the calls that are now supported by Facebook Messenger. Even though there are fewer restrictions on personal electronic devices than there used to be, the FAA and the FCC both have rules that say you cannot use your phone for “voice communications” during the flight. According to an FAA press release that explained the expanded use of personal electronic devices:
Cell phones should be in airplane mode or with cellular service disabled – i.e., no signal bars displayed — and cannot be used for voice communications based on FCC regulations that prohibit any airborne calls using cell phones.
And just in case it wasn’t enough for the the FAA and FCC to wag their collective fingers in your face, most domestic carriers explicitly forbid VoIP calls within the terms and conditions regarding in-flight Wi-Fi. Because no one ever reads terms and conditions, here are what the major carriers say.
- American Airlines: “Cell phone and Voice-over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services are not available with inflight Wi-Fi.”
- Delta: “Cellular, Bluetooth and voice services, including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications, may not be used while in flight.” (Delta also famously called the police on the founder of Viber, who used his own app to place a call during a flight).
- United: “Please note that we do not allow the use of our onboard Internet service for voice communication or videoconferencing through a cell phone, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or any similar device or service. Voice and video calls are expressly prohibited.”
- Interestingly, Southwest says that it doesn’t allow VoIP calls because it can slow down the already sloth-like speed of their Wi-Fi: “In order to provide a top-notch WiFi experience, we limit access to certain high bandwidth applications and websites, including Netflix, HBO Go, and VoIP.”
- And Virgin goes the ‘Nobody wants to hear you run your mouth at cruising altitude’ route: “Using cellular network services (voice or data) during the flight is not currently allowed by the FCC. For the safety and comfort of our guests, VoIP and Video Chat is also prohibited.”
The one weird little outlier is JetBlue, which does not explicitly ban VoIP calls in their terms and conditions. It’s also the one airline that currently offers a high-bandwidth internet plan, which would allow passengers to stream video.
But, again, the FCC and FAA regulations take precedence over what an airline does or does not say in its own fine print, so JetBlue passengers probably shouldn’t fire up Facetime — at least not until the plane lands. That way, they can stare at the person on the other side of the line, gesturing toward the cabin and yelling “We just lande–WHAT? I SAID WE JUST LANDED.”