JetBlue & UMA - QUESTION!

[tmobiley]

Hello,

I will be flying JetBlue soon... I am wondering, does anyone know if I can make phone calls via my UMA device (Samsung flip-phone) while in the air on JetBlue's wifi?

-tmobiley

[mikethaler]

I tried it nearly 2 years ago on Virgin Air. I could connect, but the call dropped in less than 10 seconds. Made 3 or 4 attempts. As I recall, SMS went thru. I fly JB and VA several times a year. Going East, I take the red eye, so see no need to pay for wifi. Going West I leave in the evening, so no real need there either. VA has had wifi since its inception and has been free the past 2 years in Dec. and Jan - sponsored by Google. JB does NOT have wifi on its flites. At least as of 12 days ago<G>.

[ePhonite]

FWIW: AFAIK all US in-flight Wi-Fi providers explicitly ban voice (that includes UMA, Wi-Fi and VoIP calling in general, teleconferencing, voice/video messenger applications, etc.)

[CoolPhone]

FWIW: AFAIK all US in-flight Wi-Fi providers explicitly ban voice (that includes UMA, Wi-Fi and VoIP calling in general, teleconferencing, voice/video messenger applications, etc.)

it is not true!
I made many calls in the sky with UMA.

[ePhonite]

> it is not true!
> I made many calls in the sky with UMA.

Well, all you have to do is read the agreement for gogo in-flight internet, etc.
And since you obviously have a problem with reading with understanding, I'll give it to you, again, straight up: all US in-flight Wi-Fi providers explicitly forbid all voice applications. You can probbaly do it but it violates the agreement.

As an aside, UMA = mixed Wi-Fi/cellular calling with seamless hand off. Very unlikely to work in-flight with any consistency. So you either used straight Wi-Fi calling (= VoIP) or plain cellular (which often works in-flight but is also illegal in the US.)

[mikethaler]

It is impossible to connect to a cell tower at 30000 ft. Try it. The plane won't fall out of the sky while you test it. A few airlines are actually thinking of offering "roaming" on their flites (overseas airlines - not domestic airlines afaik).
The reason they put "no calling" in the terms of service is to have a reason to prevent people from annoying their fellow passengers. When I tried my UMA test a year ago Dec. during the Google free wifi month - I had the window seat. The middle was empty. As mentioned - the calls would not stay connected. I have not tried it since.
I assume those w.o. UMA could try and connect via Skype.

...mike

[CoolPhone]

> it is not true!
> I made many calls in the sky with UMA.

Well, all you have to do is read the agreement for gogo in-flight internet, etc.
And since you obviously have a problem with reading with understanding, I'll give it to you, again, straight up: all US in-flight Wi-Fi providers explicitly forbid all voice applications. You can probbaly do it but it violates the agreement.

As an aside, UMA = mixed Wi-Fi/cellular calling with seamless hand off. Very unlikely to work in-flight with any consistency. So you either used straight Wi-Fi calling (= VoIP) or plain cellular (which often works in-flight but is also illegal in the US.)

I am working for a major airlines .
I made ton of UMA calls in the sky! even the call quality is horrible, but it works

[tmobiley]

it is not true!
I made many calls in the sky with UMA.

So I will be able to use my Samsung Katalyst up in the air on JetBlue. How do I go about doing so?

I can text? And... voice (I assume...) with degraded quality?

[ChristopherMcG]

So I will be able to use my Samsung Katalyst up in the air on JetBlue. How do I go about doing so?

I can text? And... voice (I assume...) with degraded quality?

i thought you switched to MetroPCS

[tmobiley]

i thought you switched to MetroPCS

It ended up working out that I was able to stay with T-Mobile.

[mikethaler]

So I will be able to use my Samsung Katalyst up in the air on JetBlue. How do I go about doing so?

I can text? And... voice (I assume...) with degraded quality?

NOT on JetBlue. They don't have wifi. They didn't have it on the last cross country flites a couple weeks ago and no mention of it is made on their web site today. They do have about 30+ TV channels and some movie channels for each passenger to watch.
...mike

[pzo]

Not true about the cellular at cruising altitude. I first tried this with a huge AMPS transportable. About 2000 before the airlines and the FAA got all wiggy about cell phones, I had my TDMA phone on for a whole flight, middle of the country. Went cell to cell very nicely.

Maybe something has changed, but I can't imagine how. Other than burdensome regulations.

[mikethaler]

I never have picked up signal at 30000 feet or above - even over cities. Never tried it when I had the box sized transportable. As I recall, they operated at 3 watts - which is a lot more than modern phones do.

...mike