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FCC To Consider Cellphone Use On Planes

Posted by samzenpus on from the leave-your-electronic-devices-on dept.

aitikin writes "The Federal Communications Commission is expected to propose allowing passengers to use their cellphones on airplanes. While phone use would still be restricted during takeoff and landing, the proposal would lift an FCC ban on airborne calls and cellular data use by passengers once a flight reaches 10,000 feet. From the article: 'The move would lift a regulatory hurdle, but any use of cellphones on planes would still have to be approved by the airlines, which have said they would approach the issue cautiously due to strong objections from their customers. Airlines would have to install equipment in their planes that would communicate with cellphone towers on the ground.'"

16 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. please don't by TheMeuge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think this would lead to in-flight homicide.

    1. Re: please don't by MrKaos · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think this would lead to in-flight homicide.

      I can imagine a situation where someone who can't exert any impulse control gets on a mobile phone while the rest of the cabin is trying to sleep, a very real risk of on-board assaults from tired and frustrated travelers.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    2. Re: please don't by Joining+Yet+Again · · Score: 4, Funny

      The real risk is that the plane is full of polite British travellers who are too reserved to punch the caller and instead just tut noisily for 12 hours.

      The safety demonstration needs to include a demonstration of how to safely and effectively disable the goatfucker who takes out his 'phone. Perhaps it could include step-by-step advice on how to break the equipment without causing a fire hazard by piercing the li-ion battery.

    3. Re: please don't by causality · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think this would lead to in-flight homicide.

      I can imagine a situation where someone who can't exert any impulse control gets on a mobile phone while the rest of the cabin is trying to sleep, a very real risk of on-board assaults from tired and frustrated travelers.

      If I were on the jury I'd refuse to convict those guilty of assault, provided they used no (improvised) weapons and stopped once their point had been made.

      It's a shitty sign of the times that, so often, you can no longer politely ask someone to stop being annoying. They'll get "offended" and belligerent instead of being enough of a person to recognize that you had cause. Accepting a legitimate and polite correction is now viewed as a sign of weakness or submission. That's the cause of a great deal of violence, in fact nearly all violence that is not state-sponsored.

      The social fabric is currently as unsustainable as the financial edifice of society. It makes me wonder if it will change course. What you said about impulse control has everything to do with having a little discipline and personal responsibility (it wouldn't take much). These things aren't "fun" or "entertaining" to acquire so more and more people can't be bothered. Am I alone in witnessing how tragic this is? Assholes with phones here, idiots gathering to chat and blocking doorways there, someone running off the road (or over the median) because their call or burger or makeup is more important to them elsewhere -- these little things are merely symptoms.

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
    4. Re:please don't by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And you'd be wrong. Seriously America is behind the times on the issue. I've taken several international flights where cellphone use was permitted and a) it didn't lead to endless chatting due to obscene international roaming calls, and b) if someone was on the phone more than 2-3 seats away you couldn't hear them anyway over the noise of the engines.

    5. Re: please don't by noh8rz10 · · Score: 3, Funny

      you could dump your drink on him or her. that would do the trick for the phone without actual violence. Also, it is within the capability of most hominids.

    6. Re: please don't by Cyberax · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Doesn't matter. There's no sidetalk (i.e. you can't hear yourself) on the mobile phone, so lots of people scream even with earphones.

  2. Re:Here comes the flood.... by TheMeuge · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here comes the flood of people complaining about having to listen to other people talking...

    Even though it's really no different to people talking to the person next to them

    Except people tend to talk louder on the phone than in person... and you're trapped next them for the next n hours.

    Put the phone down. It won't hurt. I promise.

  3. HELLO? by bitt3n · · Score: 5, Funny

    HELLO! GLADYS? I'M ON THE PLANE! I CAN SEE CLOUDS! ONE LOOKS LIKE A RUTABAGA! DO YOU THINK THAT MEANS ANYTHING? SO HOW WAS YOUR DAY? WAIT SOMEONE NEXT TO ME IS TRYING TO GET MY ATTENTION. EXCUSE ME CAN'T YOU SEE I'M ON THE PHONE? HOW RUDE!

    great, now I have to bypass the yelling filter... sdlfjals;kdfjakl; sklsfdlkas; lsdksdk lsk dslk sdl ksdlk; dsl;sd ldslklsd klds;l dsl;k ksdkl;sdlkdskl; sd;klsdk l; sdkllks;d skdl; skldkl;ds k;ldskldsklsfjlskdfk sdl lks dklds lks;dlk ds ;klsdlk dsdkls slkldkslk;d;klsdkl dsl;skd l;kds ksdl; sdkldslk sldk;l kdsk;lsd lkkl;ds ds ;klsd kl;kdsl; k;ldsksd kl k;sdkl;sl;kd klsd;lkds l;kdslk sd;lkk; lsd;lkds l;ksd;klds ;klsdkldsl;k sd ;lksd ;klsd l;ksdl;k sd lk;dsl ;ksdl ;kds l;kds l;kdskl ;sdklsd k;l;sdkl;klsd;klsd kl;ds k;lds; lksdkl; ds;kl sdkl ;sdl ksd klsd; lkdsk ldsklsd;lkds ;lkds ;lkds ;klds; lksd;kl

    --
    how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
  4. Re:Here comes the flood.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Or not

    “It’s very emotional in the United States,” said Benoit Debains, the chief executive of OnAir. He insisted that the anxiety was overblown. For one thing, he and other industry executives said, standard cabin noise covers up much conversational noise, yet people with cellphones pressed to their ears in that environment somehow do not feel the need to speak louder to compensate.

    “I remember on the first flight we did, we asked one guy, ‘What do you think about using the phone for voice in the cabin?’ He said he was against it. But we said, ‘You know, the guy across from you has been using his phone for the last five minutes.’ ”

    Emirates executives have even heard from skeptical pilots and flight attendants who mistakenly believed “the system was on but nobody was using it” on a particular flight, he said. “And I was able to go back to them and say, well 63 people had their phones on, and there were 22 phone calls and 68 messages.”

    He added, “They were thinking it must be broken because they don’t hear anybody using it.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/technology/29phones.html

  5. Verbal diarrhea by Mister+Liberty · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Cell phones not a problem on busses and trains?
    Have you ever took a train during rush hour?
    Terror right there.

  6. Ban Removed Due to New Revenue From Micro-Cells by ad454 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There was never any safety issues with using a cell phone anytime during flight. If there was, don't you think that planes would be dropping like flies from every nutcase and terrorist turing on (or leaving on) their cell phones?

    It was disallowed because it cut into airline revenue from expensive airplane to satellite phones. However now that airlines are deploying micro-cells, with huge roaming fees, guess with, its now magically time to remove cell phone restrictions. But only when the planes are above 10000 feet, in order to allow these micro-cells to override ground based cell towers, and insure roaming revenue.

    Below 10000 feet, the in-flight cell phone ban must remain in place, since it is much easier to bypass the micro-cells in planes and connect directly (and cheaply) to a ground based cell towers.

    1. Re:Ban Removed Due to New Revenue From Micro-Cells by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It was disallowed because it cut into airline revenue from expensive airplane to satellite phones.

      Sorry to spoil your capitalist conspiracy but it was banned due to the technical issues around the air interface. Specifically Cell Reselection became a major headache where the signal would rapidly hop from one tower to the other. Changing cells presents quite a burden on the infrastructure as calls are re-routed and resources are allocated. A plane full of talking phones while flying over a city will very quickly lead to dropped calls as 15 subscribers bounce to a cell at the same time and then move on seconds later.

      Then there's also issues regarding the radio signal itself. There's cells on the market specifically intended to be installed on high-speed rail lines. They throw most other requirements out the window in favour of high gain and directionality (reduce the number of handovers required in a trip), and using fancy patented radio voodoo to get the GSM to work at a speed higher than 250km/h.

      See for a long time you couldn't use your phone on a high-speed rail either. Well it wasn't banned, but it just plain didn't work for more than a few seconds at a time.
      The existence of micro-cells and re-routing calls via satellite overcomes these technical hurdles.

  7. Hearing half a conversation by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    Even though it's really no different to people talking to the person next to them

    Hearing half a conversation is worse than hearing a whole conversation.

  8. Re:I see $$$ signs! by petman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The phones on the backs of seats can only be used to make, not receive, calls. OTOH, with cellphones, the airlines can impose a surcharge for both outgoing and incoming calls, much like with carrier roaming. There's also data roaming. So yes, the airlines to stand to make big bucks on this if they play it right.

    --
    Dropbox drops it like it's hot.
  9. Apologies to George Carlin... by maiden_taiwan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Them: "Mind if I yak on my cellphone in this enclosed space?"
    You: "Mind if I fart?"