AircraftNews.Com

It is not long in the past that using a mobile phone at work was regarded as uncouth to say the least and many offices had rules against this practice. Inflight use was frowned on and in Australia at least there was a time when it was illegal. Now the utility and ubiquity of the mobile phone is being recognised.
En-route documents now list the phone numbers of ATC and weather information and their usefulness in operations when communication difficulties exist is recognised. Pilots are becoming used to the fact that the mobile phone is there as a back up (I had cause to use one when rain caused a total com failure while I was on a charter flight). Many pilots are finding that using their mobiles to phone the AWIS is better than plugging away trying to get the info from Flight Service (not due to them being uncooperative but rather understaffed due cost cutting).
The latest example of this was in the US in California where Air traffic controllers had to resort to mobile phones to relay messages to planes under their guidance during a communications failure at a major control centre.
Roughly 40 controllers at the Oakland Centre in Fremont lost telephone and radio communication for about 15 minutes earlier this week, The Associated Press reports. The affected controllers used their mobiles to ring colleagues who hadn’t been cut off and pass on flight information to the planes.
Five flights were delayed due to the breakdown but no planes were in danger, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says. All part of life’s rich tapestry.