Are there phones on planes

Better to be safe than sorry, says the industry. Well, sort of. You could actually be charged with two offenses. Of course, those outcomes are mostly referring to passengers who are willfully refusing to switch their phones into airplane mode.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, arrives to meet family members of missing passengers at the reception center at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8, A relative of two missing passengers reacts at their home in Kuala Lumpur on March 8, Chinese police at the Beijing airport stand beside the arrival board showing delayed Flight in red on March 8, When flying over sparsely populated rural areas, nearby towers are fewer and farther between.

Over the open ocean, there are no towers at all with which to communicate, making phone calls, texts and social media posts impossible. Speed can also make maintaining a cellular connection difficult, as a device has to switch from tower to tower to maintain a connection. Rojas told CNN that a plane would have to be going miles per hour kilometers per hour or less for phones in cell-tower range to make or receive calls.

Airplane mode is a setting on smartphones and tablets that turns off most or all of a device's wireless communication features. This includes shutting down cellular connections, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth so that no calls, messages or data can be sent or received. This setting has different names depending on the device and operating system, but is present on all smartphones. It is not possible to send or receive communications while in full airplane mode.

On some phones, it is possible to turn Wi-Fi back on while in airplane mode to take advantage of any on-board wireless networks, or to reactivate Bluetooth to hook up to any compatible devices.

Neither setting would communicate with a cell tower on the ground, though. It's likely that many passengers also forget to turn their phone to Airplane Mode when taking off and that all flights have a few cellular devices that can still search for towers. Do phones communicate with towers when not in us e?

A cell phone not set to airplane mode could still automatically connect to cellular base stations when in the proper range. Background phone tasks such as location services, e-mail and other things that push through notifications are always attempting to connect and send and receive information. Any attempted connections or pings would be recorded by mobile operators. Don't many airlines offer inflight Wi - Fi? Some airplanes offer inflight wireless connections that can be used to connect to the Internet and make calls and send texts using services such as Skype and WhatsApp.

There are different technologies for bringing Wi-Fi to airplanes. Some use special mobile broadband cell towers on the ground that are flipped to point into the air. Satellite technology can be used to get signals where there are no ground towers. If the inflight entertainment system is turned off, phones and other devices cannot use these wireless connections. Aren't some flights going to allow calls in the air? Recently, the FAA loosened its rules for using cellular devices on airplanes.

Many airlines now allow you to use tablets and smartphones during take-off and landing as long as they are in airplane mode. It is also considering allowing cell phone calls in the air.

To make that possible, airplanes would need to be equipped with specialized miniature base stations called picocells. Those base stations would relay any cellular signals through satellites or cell towers on the ground that are already set up to work with airplanes. READ: How deep is deep? Luckily, inflight entertainment has improved exponentially in the past decade or so.

Take note that not all airlines offer this perk and most shorter domestic flights do not. If Wi-Fi is important to you, check whether your airline and plane are equipped with it prior to booking your flight. When Wi-Fi is available, messaging is free for all.

Regardless of the rules, try to keep your voice down when talking on the phone. Remember, some passengers enjoy air travel because of the peace and quiet it affords. Respect your fellow passengers and try to be as small of a bother as possible.