CooperMills

Archives

ACMA amends mobile phone jammer prohibition

This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (‘ACMA’) after a public consultation process has amended the Mobile Phone Jammer Prohibition on 21 January 2009, which now lifts one of the greatest regulatory impediments to allowing in flight mobile telephone use on aircraft.

The amendment was by way of an exemption allowing for the operation of a device if:

a. the device is designed to facilitate a cellular mobile telephone service onboard an aircraft operating within another frequency; and

b. the device is operated for that purpose.

This is a huge step forward, but don’t expect in flight mobile telephone use anytime soon, as the ACMA must first establish radio communications licensing arrangements to facilitate this.

This comes hot on the heels of in flight wireless internet trials in Europe. Watch this space for more Telecommunications Law updates and information.