• bleistift2@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    What’s the actual reason for this? I can’t imagine that phones fighting for non-existing wifi to make a difference to the airplane’s communications on on a different band.

    • Anonymous@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      I’ve heard it’s because the plane is moving so fast when taking off and landing that the phones will ping many different cell towers in rapid succession and that can wreak havoc on the network. It also makes your battery drain faster as it struggles to find a stable cell connection.

      ETA: this comment explains it better: https://lemmy.world/comment/3968181

    • newIdentity
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      1 year ago

      That actually was the case about 20 years ago, but nowadays it’s not really a problem anymore

    • octoperson
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      1 year ago

      I’ll add my hearsay to everyone else’s - whilst no reasonable piece of consumer electronics actually poses this risk, it’s theoretically possible that a particularly recklessly designed device could. The airlines need some sort of assurance for liability/insurance reasons, and rather than submit every electronics manufacturer to get every device tested and accredited, they came up with ‘airplane mode’ as a compromise.

    • UntouchedWagons@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      I’ve read it’s to reduce distractions while the flight attendants give instructions to the passengers.