Talmon Marco , founder of the VoIP app Viber , was come across at La Guardia airport this evening by a wait posse of porthole authority cop . What did he do ? Well , it ’s not quite as outrageous as Alec Baldwin getting in bother for play Words With Friends , but it ’s still a bit ridiculous .
Apparently , Marco had been using the GoGo in - flight wifi to make a call through his VoIP ( Voice - over - Internet - Protocol ) and free texting app Viber . A flight attend came over to ask that he end the call , arrogate an FAA rule against VoIP use in the air ; Marco knew full well that no such dominion exists , and assure her as much , but terminate his called promptly .
The rule , in point of fact , is a predilection of the airline , not the agency :
While passenger are welcome to get to the vane , U.S. airline business offering WiFi service block the usance of inflight calling using Skype or similar applications . This is not an FAA limitation ; they are merely responding to the consuming absolute majority of their customers , who opt silent communication theory to the public nature of Voice - over - net - Protocol ( VoIP ) calls .
Another flight attendent was shout in , who take it was a rule not of the FAA but of the GoGo terms of service , and after he protest once more , he said Marco was being difficult and handed him an FAA folder , and when Marco took a picture of it , the flight of stairs attendent say he was going to have the cops waiting for Marco at the gate .
Jeez Louise ! Considering that the VoIP ruler — be it at the airline ’s discretion or the agency’s — is in space not for flying safety but cabin quiet , this all seems a bit OTT .
In the end , the cops ultimately decide it was n’t such a big deal , and Marco went merrily on his elbow room . [ TheNextWeb ]
UPDATE : Talmon Marco sent us this email at 5:39am EST , to “ get the record straight . ”
Hi ,
Rehttp://gizmodo.com/5908760/delta- …
Normally I would give thanks you for the reporting , but this is not what I expect to get coverage for …
Anyway , just to get the record straight person :
1 . I did bend off the earpiece justly forth . I did n’t even say goodbye .
2 . What irritated the escape crew was me questioning the legitimacy of their call that this is banned by FAA , as they said it was a “ flight safety return ” . Remarkably , the more older flight attended admitted that this is a “ terms of serving ” violation .
3 . look like it is indeed a terms of military service misdemeanour ( the Gogo terms of service ) , but to call the fuzz because of this ?
4 . I was not rude , I was not loud , I was not opprobrious , I was just trying to understand what ’s the reference of this demand . It ’s a shame Delta personnel are so abusive .
And last , but not least , the company behind the Gogo military service has announced a class ago … an Android phone plan for making phone calls on plane :
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19736_7-2 …
So is this all about how you use their bandwidth ? ( at ~20kbps , Viber consumes far less bandwidth than YouTube ) . Will they call the cops next for using YouTube ?
Anyway .. back to oeuvre ..
Talmon
https://gizmodo.com/delta-calls-cops-on-viber-exec-for-using-his-own-voip-a-5908760
Daily Newsletter
Get the best technical school , science , and culture news in your inbox daily .
tidings from the future , delivered to your present .
Please select your desired newssheet and bow your email to promote your inbox .
