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UK communications watchdog Ofcom has announced plans to enable mobile phone use on aircraft.

The decision to allow air passengers to use their mobiles was made alongside other EU countries and the development will relate to flights in European airspace.

People on board planes will be able to connect their mobiles to a base station which will become operational when the aircraft reaches a minimum height of 3,000 metres.

There are still a number of regulatory issues to be resolved and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said that airlines would have to develop operating procedures related to the use of mobile phone systems on planes.

A spokesman for the CAA told the BBC: 'It's down to the airlines to decide whether they want to fit the systems, then they would have to get approval for that.'

There have been complaints that allowing mobile use on planes could create more noise and disruption during flights. David Tansley, telecoms partner at business advisory firm Deloitte, told the Guardian that many people may not even want to use their phone while flying.

'Social norms, as well as excessive background noise, may dissuade most people from making phone calls in crowded planes,' he said.

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