Japan to ban Wi-Fi gaming on planes
Wired's Game|Life passes along word from the Yomiuri Shimbun that "Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport plans to ban local wireless gaming from flights," because the Wi-Fi signal could allegedly interfere with airplane instruments. That's odd, because Lufthansa has been offering in-plane Wi-Fi service to its fliers since early 2003, and we don't remember hearing about any navigational problems or horrific plane crashes being caused by the system. The FAA agrees that in-air Wi-Fi is safe -- they approved a United Airlines plan to offer a similar service back in mid-2005.
We suppose it's better to be safe than sorry when dealing with potentially plane-crashing communications interference, but we'd still like to see some definitive evidence of the harm caused by our little portable systems before giving up our in-air wireless multiplayer.
