aaronpk
aaronpk
Whatever @zoom_us did to make their iOS app work on a plane, I am impressed. Sounds totally fine and I'm on a conference call from 35,000 feet.
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ablaze
ablaze

@aaronpk Last time I took a call on a plane, the flight attendant interrupted me and told me I was violating FAA regulations and subject to a $25,000 fine if I didn't hang up immediately.

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ablaze
ablaze

@aaronpk Yes, VOIP calls. I actually ignored her at first, and she came back shaking with rage and waving a printed FAA page in her hand and told me she would tell the captain I was ignoring her instructions if I didn't stop. I stopped.

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aaronpk
aaronpk

@ablaze Holy crap that's intense! Well I guess I won't be doing that anymore.

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In reply to
oyam
oyam

@ablaze @aaronpk Did you by any chance grab the pamphlet/page from her? I'm not aware of an actual VoIP ban by FAA, but flight attendants sometimes confuse it with regular cell calls. Although, many carriers block VoIP calls via their in-flight WiFi, due to noise complaints, etc, as well as bandwidth concerns. Some technologies work around that, but if VoIP is "blocked" (as far as they're concerned) and you're on a call, you're more likely to be mistaken for doing a cell call.

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aaronpk
aaronpk

@oyam Yeah I'm curious about this too. I couldn't find anything while googling (on the plane). I'll probably look a bit more tonight.

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ablaze
ablaze

@oyam @aaronpk It was in the back of the United in-flight magazine, and I believe I actually misspoke because of an argument we had. I said, "there is no regulation." She got mad, left, came back with the magazine, and it was a "guideline," not a regulation.

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oyam
oyam

@ablaze @aaronpk Ah ok, that makes sense. I did some research on it couple of years back, and FAA always deferred to individual airlines to make the call on that. The airline has the authority to disallow calls, but it's not an FAA regulation. Some in-flight companies (like GoGo) explicitly forbids VoIP calls in their ToCs (at least used to) that you agree to when you join their network.

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ablaze
ablaze

@oyam @aaronpk In that case, I was definitely violating that, too. To be honest, I was pretty preoccupied with the part of the page that said "<b><i><u>$25,000</u></i></b>"

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aaronpk
aaronpk

@ablaze hah wait what. My phone was still in airplane mode, no cellular service at all. Or is this specifically about VOIP too?

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aaronpk
aaronpk

@oyam I'm surprised they don't just block Zoom since it's one of the biggest ones. They do block YouTube.

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