In Flight Use of Cell Phones???

You got it, our European friends have just passed a law that will allow for the in-flight use of cell phones. With that winning vote, travel has become 10x more annoying. It's bad enough having to listen to someone in the terminal, but on the plane, the last place of some solitude? May the lord be with you should you be sitting next to a loudtalker, I may have a hard time not pressing the end button.

For the Eurpoeans, the only saving grace is that it will not be cheap to phone home from 37,000 feet up. According to the BBC, the service will start appearing as early as next month, starting with Air France—which apparently is ready for deployment—and following with low cost airline Ryanair. I hope this never happens in the US and if it does, I hope it is $10/min to keep most yahoos off their phones.

See the simplified technical drawing below.