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Cell Phones In The Air?
jumbledInTheHead writes "Are you ever annoyed when someone near you talks unnecessarily loud on their cell phone? Or even worse, when it is in a tight, enclosed space and you can't walk away? The problem is about to get worse the next time you take a flight; the FAA is considering removing the ban on cell phone use on airlines."
Divide up the seats into a cell phone and non-cell phone section. Kind of like a non-smoking and smoking section they have in restaurants.
I already wear earplugs on the train: they block the noise from the train itself quite effectively but don't muffle voices as effectively as I'd like. (I think they are designed to attenuate low frequencies.)
Has anyone seen earplugs designed specifically to block human voices as well as low-frequency noise?
Well the difference is that when someone is talking loudly to the person next to them they are both in the same location and receiving the same information. They can both see the annoyed faces on the people. The person behind them can kick both of there seats. When a person is using a cell phone there is one party that is in a different environment. And he leads the conversation which can keep the person loud because the guy in the plain is imagining himself in the same environment. And forgets to use his inside voice. Also if there is any interference in the line our natural responce is to speak louder while in reality if we talk softer we would probably get a better transmission.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
They only have two people next to them on the plane to talk to, and if they are talking loudly, that's going to stop pretty quickly.
With a cell phone, they can talk loudly to anyone they can reach by phone.
So instead of maybe an hour before their seatmate gives them a hint that maybe it is time to shut up, they can conduct "business" in a loud voice for 8 hours straight (or as long as their battery lasts).
Long-distance air travel is already annoying enough, this is going to crank it up a notch!
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
I hardly ever use my mobile, but on a plane I imagine it would be really useful (Hi Honey - I'll be in late, or booking rooms or whatever)
True: I use mine regularly to advise my wife of my train time---by text message, not by talking.
There is a difference.
See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3643477.stm for details.
Basically, people get more annoyed when they can only hear one side of the conversation.
Manta
I feel the same way about those people who are selfish enough to think that babies have an off button that their parents can just hit whenever they have to fly.
Seriously, if you're so intolerant of every aspect of the rest of society then perhaps you should fly first class, fly by private charter, or not fly at all. (And that's a general "you", not JNighthawk in particular.)
Frankly, this whole "loud conversation" stuff reminds me of that universal off button story a few months back. If something bothers you, then try to address it politely or not at all.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
First, engine and wind noise provide natural noise masking. It will only be the few closest people that you'd be able to hear talking. And to be honest, I'd mostly prefer that they talk to someone on their cell phones rather than trying to strike up a conversation with me.
Secondly, I'm surprised that the FAA and/or FCC is still concerned about the planes. I can't remember the last time I went on a flight and didn't hear a phone accidentally ring in flight. Oops. Forgot to shut off your cell phone. Yet despite most flights having at least some passengers who leave their cell phones on, it hasn't caused any problems. If it were an actual issue, it would be pervasive.
And finally, a huge number of people bring on laptops and although they might not be actively attached to a wireless connection, the computers are still sitting there probing the airwaves looking for connection points. Again, no problem there despite the fact that wireless computer technology is present and active on most flights.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
Commercial aircraft fly at 35,000 feet, which esentially avoids the confusion issue, by taking you out of radio range of most of the towers you're flying over until they're almost directly below you.
Last time I was on a plane the guy behind me was on the cell phone talking from take off to mid flight.. despite the cell phone ban. Maybe because he was already conneted to a call the phone had an easier time, or maybe your phone just sucks and can't handle flying, not sure what the case is, but people have used cell phones on airplanes all the time... ban or no ban...
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
well, if it's such a problem, do what the japanese do... on the shinkansen (bullet train) which is essentially a slow airplane on wheels, the vestibule near the toilets is the required spot for all mobile conversations... if your phone rings, you leave your seat and have your conversation back by the loos, not in your seat
it works because everyone respects not being an ass to others... whether or not this would work on airplanes is another matter, but the idea of a mobiles section in the same sense as smoking sections would be a step in the right direction
Most of the discussion so far has focused on whether people should be allowed to do this, how annoying they'll be, etc.
But my question is this: People say that cell phones might be dangerous, but does anyone here know how this is? What "navigational equipment" are they talking about when they say the cell phones might interfere? Does anyone believe that story in 2000 where they're saying that some guy flipping on his phone caused the plane to nose dive? Is the navigation equipment really that flaky?
I'm curious whether there is anyone out there who actually knows about frequency/radio/signal stuff AND airplane equipment that could shed some light on what the real danger is?
My guess is that the FAA has been "playing it safe" as a precaution.
Most importantly, there are 2 limiting factors:
It doesn't accept phones further than 20 kms from the base station because the signal takes so long to get there that it will jam the next time slot
It doesn't allow speeds greater than 250 km/hr because the doppler shift stretches the signal too much.
So, an airliner flying at 10 km altitude will have a very limited view of base stations, and it's cruising speed of 1000 km/hr will be 4 times the limit. I'm pretty sure this won't work.
Perhaps in the U.S. where analog networks are still commonplace, you could get a connection on one of them. But I don't see it happening with GSM. Perhaps during take-off and landing but that would be it.
Sidetone! Thanks!
So, the next question is, why don't they do this in cell phones?