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You Don’t Need to Use Airplane Mode on Airplanes | Airplane mode hasn't been necessary for nearly 20 years, but the myth persists. (gizmodo.com)

submitted 6 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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You Don’t Need to Use Airplane Mode on Airplanes | Airplane mode hasn't been necessary for nearly 20 years, but the myth persists.::Airplane mode hasn't been necessary for nearly 20 years, but the myth persists.

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[–] rrrurboatlibad@lemdro.id 163 points 6 months ago (8 children)

You should still set airplane mode when airborne for other reasons besides interference with the aircraft. For one, you'll save your battery. It takes a lot of "juice" for your device to search for cell towers that are likely out of reach. You may also want to avoid connecting to a tower outside where you have coverage. E.g. for a flight from Anchorage to Minneapolis, maybe you don't want to connect to Canadian cell towers and potentially receive charges in another country. Obviously this depends on your plan limits. But, yeah, it's not really about protecting the airplane, in most cases

[–] n01getsout@sh.itjust.works 30 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Here is a video from TED-Ed that explains why. TLDR: phones looking for a signal broadcast on high power, but planes move so fast that you can end up right next to a cell tower so the high power signal can interfere with other phones trying to communicate.

https://youtu.be/iKYHf22qVdM

I disagree with how he phrases a few things, but I think it's mostly accurate.

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