On 05/04/2012 14:23, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 07:15:25 on
Thu, 5 Apr 2012, Robert Neville remarked:
"The aircraft, an Airbus A340, is fitted with a system which
stops mobiles from interfering with a plane's electronics.

Well, sort of. The aircraft is equiped with a pico cell (miniature
cell tower)
that instructs the phones to reduce their power output to the minimum.
There's
no active interference protection.

The interference protection is achieved by that action of "reducing
power". Which is caused by the picocell. It's just different ways of
saying the same thing.

What kind of mobile phone system is used in Niue, BTW? I remember
reading that it is quite different from your standard provider.

In message , at 22:36:04 on Thu, 5 Apr
2012, " remarked:
What kind of mobile phone system is used in Niue, BTW? I remember
reading that it is quite different from your standard provider.

It seems they have three GSM base stations, which for some reason they
want to run using "Open software". Not sure why they don't come fully
fitted with software from the factory.

Domestic calls only. No international roaming (and presumably no
international calling out), in the absence of an undersea cable - being
fitted now.
--
Roland Perry