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In-flight Cell Ban Advances In Congress
narramissic writes "The awkwardly named Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace (HANG UP) Act was approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on a voice vote Thursday. The bill would make permanent the long-standing ban on in-flight cell phone calls by the FAA and FCC. 'Polls show the public overwhelmingly doesn't want to be subjected to people talking on their cell phones on increasingly over-packed airplanes. However, with Internet access just around the corner on U.S. flights, it won't be long before the ban on voice communications on in-flight planes is lifted,' said Representative Peter DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon who co-sponsored the HANG UP Act in a statement. 'Cash-strapped airlines could end up charging some passengers to use their phones while charging others to sit in a phone-free section of the plane,' he said."
They could just let individual air lines react to market forces.
Why do people need to use their phones in-flight anyway? I can understand the need for communication for people travelling on business to keep in touch with their office, but what's wrong with e-mail? A large number of people find flying an uncomfortable/annoying/stressful etc experience as it is without having to hear people talk over everyone else so someone elsewhere can hear them. I know the modern world is fast-paced, but honestly, it can wait, can't it?!
If people really don't want to be bothered by cellphones then the airlines could just ban people from using them on the plane and use this as a selling point.
Why does the government have to poke at this one?
No thanks. I already get that for free. And if that ever changes, I'll just not fly with that airline, or not fly period. I don't mind driving cross-country to go on a vacation. And in the unlikely event that I do find myself stuck on a plane next to some jackass that can't remove their phone from their ear for 3 fucking hours, I'll just ask them to please be considerate of the people around them, or put on my headphones, or just start watching a movie on my laptop at maximum volume.
Because for some reason, when two people are talking right next to one another, they tend to whisper or at least talk in low voice.
For some reason, give someone a cellphone and if they are not downright shouting their voice somehow still seems to carry at least a few rows. You can observe this every day in any bus/train. Even though the other end will definitely hear you even if you talk at low volume.
Cash-strapped airlines could end up charging some passengers to use their phones while charging others to sit in a phone-free section of the plane
Thereby enabling smarter airlines such as Southwest to take an ever greater market share by not doing stupid things like that.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
I'm not sure how that would be possible, or make a difference. Considering the tight confines of an airplane (for most US trips), if you have more than 3 people talking on phones at a time they'll likely be shouting soon to hear themselves over the other conversations. At which point everyone who isn't part of those conversations can no longer hear anything but those conversations.
It should be obvious why passengers prefer other people not use cell phones in flight. There is no way to escape other peoples' calls when you have dozens to hundreds of people stuffed into a flying sardine can.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
It's not the government's job to protect people from mild annoyances. If it's really true that the public "overwhelmingly" dislikes this, then that's a market the airlines can capitalise on. The market should solve this, and if it doesn't, tough.
What next? The government monitoring the Internet and fining anybody who says LOL U WAT? 'Cause, you know, that irritates me, and apparently I have the right not to be irritated. Next up: passing the Freedom from Arm Rest Theft act.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
Troll?? If the issue is people on planes being annoyed because of other people making noise, then children are right at the top of this list.
Is it that people talk loudly on cellphones and therefore you notice, or is that that some people talk loudly on cellphones, but people who talk quietly on cellphones don't attract attention, so the only people on cellphones you notice are those that speak loudly?
I don't buy the "Cellphones make people rude and loud" claim. I don't get complaints, rude stares, or any other signs my use of my cellphone is causing annoyance but I see others subjected to that treatment when they really are loud and annoying. I have to assume that I, like probably 95% of the population, am simply invisible, because I don't speak loudly into my phone, I keep my conversations in public short, and my cellphone uses vibration to notify me of calls rather than a loud, annoying, ring.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
that will probably never procreate. :-)
Let me draw this picture for you: kids are randomly noisy. There is absolutely nothing parents can do about kids' noise when they are up to it. Even a duck-tape-on-the-mouth kid makes a lot of noise. :-)
If you have some smart answer in the form of "if you do X, the kid will stay put", let me give you the news: it will not work. Kids only stay quiet... if they "want" to.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
One (smoking) is hazardous to the health of everyone on the plan, while the other (cellphone use) is mostly hazardous to the asshat who is yelling into his phone about his golf game yesterday. I say it's hazardous to his health because if I am sitting next to him I am going to shove his phone into whichever of his bodily orifices I can fit it into nice and snugly.
Only $20 per trip? Even if the cost to the airline justified the price, I think I'd probably just manage without World of Warcraft for the duration than pay $20 when the hotel at my destination will probably give it to me for free, or at least a lower price.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
How is talking on a cellphone fundamentally different from talking to, say, a friend of yours next to you?
Living in freedom includes other peoples right to be obnoxious, as long as they don't force you to be near them while they are. And NO, voluntarily flying around in airplanes is not being forced to anything.
By the way, you premise is wrong. If the majority had such a big problem with people talking on airplanes, airlines would offer talk-free sections, or even talk-free flights, in order to attract more of the silent fliers.
Outlawing discomfort is a slide to fascism, just hope and pray that you, your job/profession or some vice you have won't become a discomfort to a majority someday.
last time I travelled with children (18 month old twins) I brought along a bottle of earplugs with enough for almost the entire plane to pass around - just in case I couldn't keep them reasonably quiet.
What part of AIR TRAVEL IS EXTREMELY PAINFUL FOR BABIES do you not understand? You're calling me an intolerant self-centered brat because I don't want you to put your child in extreme pain for your own personal convenience? A BABY IS PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE OF PROPERLY EQUALIZING PRESSURE IN THEIR INNER EAR BY THEMSELVES - They're too small for their eustachian tubes to open far enough to pass air quickly enough. The experience can be traumatizing. There is even potential for permanent ear damage. Parents can sometimes induce equalization by causing baby to suckle or chew during the climb and descent, but they usually aren't told how or when to do this. It may not work depending on the physiology of your baby. Once you are halfway to cruise altitude is too late to learn that baby has ear problems. Don't gamble with your child's hearing just to save time. It's a few days or hours for you if you win, but it's a lifetime with bad or no hearing for THEM if you lose.
There is such a thing as a SHIP that crosses the oceans periodically carrying passengers. (No, not cruise ships. Passenger ships. Google is your friend.) It's not cheap and it's not fast, but it doesn't put your baby in immense pain. Which is worth more to you?
If you can't afford passage by ship and don't want your child to suffer, you have to wait. Sorry, sometimes life doesn't work in your favor. Raising children is hard. You can't always take the easy way out. (Don't let this discourage you. Stick it out and raise the kid right. Be persistent and firm. Don't believe that "it takes a village" garbage - Take initiative and be independent. Anyone can raise your kids badly, but only you can raise them right. They'll thank you when they're old enough to understand.)