Now if they could also include power outlets for everyone back in 'monkey'-class, we'd be good.

I've used the internet on flights between Copenhagen and Chicago numerous times, it's pretty sweet. I even had a voice chat with my dad once while he was @ 30,000 ft. :P

All that stray RF! Planes are going to start dropping out of the sky!!!! I'm going to dig a bunker in my back yard to protect my family!

Seriously, though, does this mean that the FAA and airlines are starting to let up in the farce that wireless devices will interfere with instrumentation?

Luke, for your information - Wireless internet does not emit the same intensity RF as cell phones do. 2.5 GHz 802.11g equipment does not have enough signal power behind it to cause problems with instrumentation and radios. I AM a pilot and I know for a fact that cell phones interfere with radio signals. While flying in non-instrument conditions I leave my cell on. When someone calls me, the aircraft voice radio will buzz much like if you were near a unshielded speaker. During this time it is very difficult to understand radio communications. Nearly all commercial aircraft fly as if in instrument conditions under ATC control for the entirety of the flight. This requires constant communication between ATC and the pilot. If you have ever listened on Air Traffic Control frequencies over large cities you will know that even 1 second of indiscernable instructions between a pilot and ATC can cause a headache or the possibility of a misunderstood instruction. Misunderstood instructions can easily lead to the deaths of countless people in the air and on the ground in a congested environment.

Note that this phenomenon usually only occurs during the initial handshake between the cell phone and the tower during an incoming call (as signal power is highest during that phase). Imagine an aircraft with 250 poeple. What are the chances that just 10 of their phones would be called during the landing phase of flight?

If cell phones interfere with voice radio. There is a good chance it messes with the instrumentation since most of it is based on land based radio navigational aids. So the FAA is airing on the side of caution with ALL wireless communication devices so that YOU and every other citizen is not at risk. I will take inconvenience over high risk any day.

While the FAA is a large and painfully slow beurocratic organization, their job is our safety. While they may take a while to test every scenario of a new technology as it relates to air travel and associated equipement - at least I know their quality control is far better than that of the (early)M$ or the EA's of the world who let all of us beta test their products for them. A system crash is not simply an inconvenience in the aviation industry... it can cost lives. Respect their authority and actually read into why they created inconvenient rules before you judge that they are a "farse" just because you don't understand the consequences.

Well, for the pilot that responded above I can tell you that you have either a Nextel (similar to TDMA or GSM) phone or some kind of GSM phone like AT&T. If those phones are the issue ban THOSE! I challenge anyone to say they hear a "buzz" in ANY radio with a good old american CDMA based phone like all Sprint, Verizon or even some US Cellular markets. Sprint phones are 1.9GHz and 0.02 watts to 0.2 watts MAX CDMA ... Thats nothing! CDMA is great ... no interference with ANYTHING on a plane unlike the crappy Nextel 0.6Watts of noisy TDMA based junk on sub 800MHz! I think we could have had a better chance to have cell access in airplanes by now if we didn't have GSM / TDMA.
Even given the noise of the .2watt or even .6 watt max phones, that is nothing at all compared to 100 watt HAM broadcasters on the ground or flying by cell towers or 50,000 watt radio stations, right? I think they are full of it and just want us "stranded" in the air under their full control. We are supposed to be happy with text based IM (text is easier to monitor and collect for them to keep an eye on us) NO communication should be banned in the USA!!!