No Use Of Mobile Phones In US Flights

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?xml=/travel/2007/10/06/et-mobile-news-106.xml">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?xml=/travel/2007/10/06/et-mobile-news-106.xml</a><br /><br /><i>"Authorities in America have ruled out allowing mobile phones on planes following a public outcry over safety, reports Charles Starmer-Smith. Aviation authorities in the United States have ruled out the use of mobile phones on planes for the "foreseeable future". Les Dorr, of the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), told Telegraph Travel this week that proposals to lift the ban on in-flight mobiles had caused such an outcry they had been dropped."</i><br /><br />I don't think there is much safety involved, but I am thrilled this movement to allow mobile cell phone use on flights has failed. The last thing I want is to be sitting within 3 rows of some obnoxious self important middle manager yammering away about nothing in particular to impress upon people how he is so important, his team back at the office can't function without his input. Additionally, I don't want to be bothered when I am on a plane by the outside world. I don't even want email access when I am up there. I get so much work done with no interruptions, I have threatened several times to just get a plane ticket and fly nowhere in particular just so I can have 3-5 hours of uninterrupted time to get what would take me 3 days in the office to accomplish.

[tendomentis]

Thank god....you'll get no complaints from this frequent flyer.

The 3-5 hours of the flight are the closest to a company sponsored isolation/immersion tank experience as I'll ever get. Once that flight is rolling, the mask comes down and the noise cancelling headphones go up, and for a few wondrous hours, the world can't reach me no matter how "urgent" it is.

I was seriously worried that very soon I'd have to deal with a thirty-something ex-valley girl like-oh-my-god yammering away on her phone for the whole flight (and no noise cancelling headphones will completely mask THAT).

I could see airlines utilizing in-flight wifi at some point, but my recommendation would be to limit the available bandwidth to each user such that VoIP would be impossible, restricting it's effectiveness to email only (hey, it would save them on costs on a fat "pipe" to each plane). Just slap an extra $20 charge onto the ticket if that person absolutely believes they MUST have email access during the flight.

Self importance costs the real monies.

[psyjohn]

Now, how do I start the movement to protect our "safety" in restaurants? :wink:

[DaleReeck]

===Self importance costs the real monies.===

Just because someone wants email access on a plane doesn't mean they think they are self-important. I'm not important at all, but I still like to know what's going on at the office, especially on a long, boring flight.

[deltaforce]

"I have threatened several times to just get a plane ticket and fly nowhere in particular just so I can have 3-5 hours of uninterrupted time to get what would take me 3 days in the office to accomplish."

Talk about self-important...

[Darren Behan]

I'm 100% behind sustaining the ban and frankly think it should be expanded to other places like restaurants, buses, subways, funerals, etc. This is especially true regarding cellphone use in cars (given the amount of idiots who have nearly killed me so far). Actually, people should just stop talking altogether, cell phone or not no matter where they are ;)

That said, I wouldn't mind global WiFi coverage. I'm not important, I don't want to be important, but I wouldn't mind being able to reach out to someone SILENTLY in real time if I wanted or needed (doubtful) to. Or if I just want to surf instead of stare out the window at the tarmac because there is yet another three hour delay caused by rain a thousand miles away...

db

[Mark Kenepp]

If what I have understood about how cellphone coverage on planes will work is true, then I think that people are overreacting to the amount of use it will actually get.

Didn't I see somewhere that in order for this to work, the airplane itself would need to supply the access point and that any connection to the network would be by "roaming" through the airplane with the airline acting as a carrier and that there would be exorbitant fees for the use of the airplanes network (in the range of several US dollars a minute).

That said, it is the people who can afford such fees (or don't care) who will probably be the most "self important" :wink:

[Sagitario]

Another frequent flyer here voting to keep it banned on flights. I do a lot of my sleeping on board. :mrgreen:.

Seriously now, I get tons of phone calls and tons of email a day and I know it sounds ironic for me to say I prefer that it's banned, but its healthy to have some time off once in a while.

It would be nice if there was a sort of online voting for this issue. I bet the results would be unexpected.

[fresh-popcorn]

Text messaging/e-mail/web browsing should be ok but talking on flights I would dread if it was allowed.
I don't fly as much as I did in the past but I do fly about 4 times a year and if I had to sit next to some jerk that talked very loud on their phone I would be annoyed on my entire flight.

[JohnJohn]

When WIFI does become available...I'm opening Airport kiosks offering Wifi Skype phone rentals...with self addressed padded envelopes for returning them....

[cameron]

When WIFI does become available...I'm opening Airport kiosks offering Wifi Skype phone rentals...with self addressed padded envelopes for returning them....

You are assuming that flight attendants could tell the difference between a cellphone and a Skype phone? And to even know what Skype is? I'm not denigrating flight attendants - I don't think 95% of the population could tell the difference.

[JohnJohn]

When WIFI does become available...I'm opening Airport kiosks offering Wifi Skype phone rentals...with self addressed padded envelopes for returning them....

You are assuming that flight attendants could tell the difference between a cellphone and a Skype phone? And to even know what Skype is? I'm not denigrating flight attendants - I don't think 95% of the population could tell the difference.

so very true....!!

[tendomentis]

Something I didn't consider in my first post....

Any internet service aboard a flight would almost certainly be provided via satellite. As I understand it, this provides speedy internet, but with high latency (understandable considering how the signal has to travel). That would make internet usage usable, but would leave "real-time" activities like VoIP unusable.

It also would keep the person in the seat next to you from playing WoW or SL the whole flight, though it wouldn't rule out a bunch of friends having a LAN party at 10,000 feet amongst themselves. I wouldn't want to be the flight attendant called by a parent whose child is sitting next to someone fragging his friends on FEAR or Prey...

[lucia316]

I don't think there is much safety involved, but I am thrilled this movement to allow mobile cell phone use on flights has failed. The last thing I want is to be sitting within 3 rows of some obnoxious self important middle manager yammering away about nothing in particular to impress upon people how he is so important, his team back at the office can't function without his input. Additionally, I don't want to be bothered when I am on a plane by the outside world.

Thank you Bose. Because of them and noice cancelling head phones, I hear nothing.

[Sven Johannsen]

"I have threatened several times to just get a plane ticket and fly nowhere in particular just so I can have 3-5 hours of uninterrupted time to get what would take me 3 days in the office to accomplish."

Talk about self-important...
Oh, that's not self important at all. I understand that comment completely. There are those that just cannot get their own work done for the others commandeering their time. In days gone by you told the secretetary, "hold all my calls, and no interruptions', but we are so connected these days that interruptions come from so many directions, it is virtually impossible to avoid them without being sequestered at 35000 ft.

Yea the ban.