We don't want to chat away on the phone at 35,000ft, according to Alastair McKenzie

Making phone calls on planes isn't a crime after all. That's a decision that at least one traveller will find hard to swallow. Back in 1999, in the middle of a flight from Madrid to Manchester, BA cabin crew spotted passenger Neil Whitehouse text-messaging from his mobile. They asked him to stop. He refused. They asked him again, pointing out the danger he might be causing to the plane's navigation systems. "Why?" he replied. "Are we going to get lost?"

A Manchester Crown Court judge concluded that was, indeed, the risk, and sentenced him to 12 months in prison. One of Whitehouse's texts, it emerged, was a simple three-word message: "I love you." Not that the content was relevant, of course. The judge had a simple decision to make: was Whitehouse endangering the lives of his fellow passengers?

According to a Civil Aviation Authority report published earlier that year, in which tests were carried out on two parked aircraft at Gatwick Airport, he was. It found evidence that mobiles could induce false cockpit warnings, the malfunctioning of aircraft systems and interference in pilots' headsets.

But despite years of investigation, for every report that claims electronic devices interfere with aircraft systems, there's another that claims they don't. We'll never know for sure, now that the radio licensing authorities in the US and Europe have decided to relax the rules for a new generation of onboard cellphone systems. The airlines are clamouring to offer these to their customers—most of whom research proves don't actually want them.

Resistance has been pretty consistent. A Gallup poll of US air passengers in 2005 showed 68 per cent in favour of keeping the ban, 29 per cent against. A global survey by Carlson Wagonlit Travel in 2006 found 61 per cent of business travellers opposed to the use of mobile phones in the air.

Most recently, a survey carried out by YouGov on behalf of the forthcoming Business Travel Show revealed that 65 per cent of people strongly disagreed that mobiles should be allowed, while only 23 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that it was a good idea.

At the 2002 Farnborough Air Show I was enthusiastically shown around Boeing's display aircraft for its Connexion system, which would allow passengers access to the internet. Connexion was closed last year, because when it came down to it, passengers preferred to relax with an in-flight movie than venture into their email—even to say "I love you".