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Cellphone Use On Planes Coming Soon?
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Thu Oct 18, 2007 11:58 PM
from the cleared-of-bee-murder-charges dept.
from the cleared-of-bee-murder-charges dept.
s31523 writes "A while back it was reported that cell phone use was given the OK on Emirate airlines. The BBC is now reporting European agencies back the use of cell phones in air. Plans have been developed to introduce technology that allow cell phone use on planes without any risk of interference. A spokesman for the UK regulator Ofcom said there were still many stages to pass through before final approval was given to the roll out of the plans, but the regulator said that the technology could be implemented next year."
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Boxed SOAP response. (Score:4, Funny)
The newest accessary (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The newest accessary (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
You can get them here... (Score:2)
And you thought you loved half hour train rides (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Interference? (Score:4, Funny)
Cell phone free flights please (Score:4, Insightful)
If I can't "just walk away" then the only alternative is an ass kicking, and I assume if I punched someone out on a plane they would arrest me on the ground as a terrorists or something.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Second that!
It's bad enough on trains and busses. Also, I don't think airline staff (that is the flight attentands) will want to mediate the disputes between people loudly yapping on the phone and people who want to sleep quietly. I suspect that till now the airlines were rather thappy to say "the government says you can't use your phone" and not have to worry about this. In the future they'll have to come down on one side or the other.
Re:Cell phone free flights please (Score:5, Funny)
In terms of coming down on one side or the other, if the airline gets a share of the phone revenue, I'll give you one guess as to which side they'll come down on...
What's really unfair though, is that if you bring a cell phone jammer onto an airoplane, _you_ would be the one to go to jail!
Parent
You all underestimate the inanity of most calls (Score:3, Funny)
LMM: "WHERE YOU AT?"
LMM: "I'M ON BART"
LMM: "BART!"
LMM: "I'M ON BART!"
LMM: "YES
LMM: "I'M ON BART!"
[Train goes in to tunnel]
LMM: "HELLO?"
LMM: "HELLO?"
LMM: "HELLO?"
[Repeat N times directly proportional to loudness and stupidness of conversation]
Re: (Score:2)
mithra save us (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Very often, the person picking you up will be waiting just off-airport at a safe/sane parking spot, rather than looping around the airport or paying $50 just to park for 15 minutes.
Back when I was in graduate school I would frequently pick my father up from the airport. Rather than loop around the airport, contributing to traffic 10-20 times, I would park in a small parking lot near the airport and wait for a call. (Similarly, about half the limo drivers picking people up at Newark Airport do the
Wait, what? (Score:5, Interesting)
You can bring on a cell phone, but not an iPod...
You can bring on a lighter, but not a water bottle...
You can wear a belt, but you have to remove your shoes...
Are they just making the rules up randomly or something?
Re: (Score:2)
Also, many security stations make you remove your belt. (I've taken to preemptively putting mine in my laptop bag)
Re: (Score:2)
And all the while, my carry on had a box cutter.
Re:Wait, what? (Score:4, Informative)
Pretty much. The idea is to make people feel safer because they are doing something. What that something is is less important, they might as well require passengers to do a tap dance or whatever amuses them the most
Parent
Re: Wait, what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
you have been able to carry lighters again (Score:2)
since august 4th lighters are allowed again.
I can guarantee this for the USA (Score:2)
This will be to "protect" and "ensure the highest possible safety regime", reign on US territory at all times; never mind that the southern border is wide open and so is the northern one to some extent.
Sadly nothing or very little is being done about it.
Great news!!! (Score:2)
Fox News will have a around the clock news coverage of the incident, and therefore all the idiots out there that don't realize it yet will finally hear the news that it is actually rude to make unwilling bystanders
Reasons (Score:2)
My understanding (of old) is that the primary reason for the ban was not that interference was inevitable, but that not all the myriad makes and models of phones could be adequately tested.
Maybe they've been doing tests and not finding anything.
The "pico cell" concept in the FA is interesting - do 2G cellphones normally adjust power output to cell distance / signal strength? Otherwise, the signals from the cells are just as much an issue as before.
Earplugs (Score:4, Insightful)
Those earplugs + noise canceling headphones + a sleeping pill if you want = Transoceanic bliss.
Throw in a PSP or DS and a movie or two and you are good to go. Just don't forget to bring some spare batteries.
real reason they ban 'em (Score:2, Interesting)
the question then is why, which people seem to think they know. it is most definitely not because they interfere with the flight systems. think about how many hundreds of people are on their cellphone or laptop i
9/11 Anyone? (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh wait... someone actually tested that with cell phones and none worked at all...
Funny isn't it how they were all made through Verizon and how chummy Verizon has been with DHS and the other agencies. hmmmmmm...
Little old lady with a hammer (Score:2)
no risk, except (Score:2)
That's "no risk of electromagnetic interference". There is a significant risk of pugilistic interference.
Why just on planes "coming soon"? (Score:2)
I'm amazed and disgusted... (Score:5, Insightful)
That the "freedom-loving" slashdotters are all — posters and moderators — claiming to be happy, that the big lie [economist.com] of "cell phones may interfere with safety equipment on board" is being used to stop their fellow passengers from using their cell phones on the planes.
Evidently, the ends justify the means... Lying to millions of travelers to prevent a tiny minority of them from being inconsiderate, while at the same time offering them an option to pay $6/minute for the same sort of inconsideration...
YES! flying is not annoying enough yet (Score:3, Funny)
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Re: (Score:2)
That was my first reaction. Now, we get to hear three dozen ringtones and three dozens idiots yammering at the top of their voices about three dozen different idiotic things. Although, given how absurd and unreasonable stewardesses tend to be in US airline companies, there will probably be more cancelled flights and tasering incidents aboard commercial aircraft now with so many people talking loudly or telling other people to shut the fuck up. (I know stewardesses can't go around tasering
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Cell phones are different... (Score:3, Interesting)
Me? I think this is a terrible move. Air travel is bad enough as it is without having to put up with somebody talking 12 inches from your ear for hours. NOBODY is suffering with the current system.
If somebody annoys me with a cellphone, ie. it's obvious that it's not an emergency call and they'
Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:4, Insightful)
If we lived in a society where people tried to be nice to one another then you'd be right, the rants would be dumb.
We don't live in such a society.
It's pretty clear from the way people act with cell phones on the ground that this is going to be an annoying change on airplanes. Who here hasn't seen/interacted with someone who talked excessively loud over their cell? I see (more hear) those people every day, are they magically going to vanish on airplanes? Same goes for people who talk forever.
We already have passenger's irritating other passengers without care on airplanes. My last flight we had someone who couldn't get a particular movie to play on the (obviously cheap) entertainment system. It was an old movie and (in my opinion) not very good but they kept complaining until the pilot decided to reset the system just to shut the guy up. After the reset he was fine, his movie played. Everyone else started getting random movies and the sound system didn't work but he was quite happy with himself. Add that to the multiple people swinging their luggage about without care while we were on the ground, the guy who went and got something out of his luggage when we were on the final runway, and the person who complained about the food and the trip was a quite unpleasant 9+ hours. Now add on someone talking on a cell phone for the entire trip, they don't even have to be that loud but they, or someone else, is always talking. Tell me, do you want to fly on that airplane?
Parent
Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:5, Insightful)
I take it from your post that you don't actually fly ever, because nobody that has been on a plane in the last few years would take those positions.
I am personally a large man, while I don't have a whole lot of extra flab, I do take up my entire seat, and more if we're talking about a 737. When somebody is taking up more space than is in a seat due to being obese they should be charge for the extra space. I barely fit in a seat as it is, and that's with the shoulders I was born with. I shouldn't have to forfeit any of my space because the person next to me chose to put on a lot of weight.
You do have a bit of a point with babies, but it is still a miserable way to fly.
As for the phones, they are basically a menace to any sort of restful flight. The vast majority of cell phone users don't realize that you don't have to yell into them to be heard. I have one myself, and most of the time I can't hear myself and the microphone still picks it up sufficiently for the other party to hear my clearly.
Limiting the cell phone use on plans to a specific walled off area would be fine by me, but expecting me or the flight attendants to moderate how loud is too loud because people invariably don't care is fundamentally unreasonable.
Parent
Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:4, Interesting)
I assume that they plan to put a cellular transceiver on the aircraft and use some specialized technology to get the signals from the airplane to the ground -- satellite or some special mode of dealing with ground stations or something.
Anyway, just when I thought that they couldn't find any more ways on top of miniscule seats with no leg room, long unexplained takeoff delays, intrusive security, losing baggage, scheduling impossible connections, overbooking, and chronically late flights to make airline travel more distasteful, they've come up with this. I rarely do airplanes any more, and the last time I did, it took me something like 36 hours to get from Burlington, VT to Seattle.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
You're a very poor guesser. You just compared watching a movie for couple of hours in your nearby theater, to a Transatlantic travel taking potentially a day or more.
In which case the ability to keep in contact with someone is more needed? Let me guess...
Uh...you can do that now (Score:2, Insightful)
On to the more important aspect: I hope this never gets implemented and for the most part I don't think it will. Lots of people like to sleep on planes and won't be able to with others yammering on their phones. Plus there is the extra time and cost for airlines to install the equipment to relay the signals. God only knows what "roaming" means at 38000 ft.
Re:Uh...you can do that now (Score:5, Insightful)
They also miss the wireless notebooks that are operational and probing for their home networks.
Parent
Compromise with text (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Compromise with text (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Seriously, it addresses the two problems and allows both sides their arguements.
Contact and consideration.
Why do these solutions escape the multimillion dollar investigation teams assigned to solving these issues?
Re:Compromise with text (Score:4, Informative)
Hmm... I wonder how long it'll be before mobile phones can be used in the Channel Tunnel? You're only underground for 20 minutes though (it's 30 miles).
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It'll be one of those low-numbered rows since only people in First and Business class will be able to afford to yak away for a whole long flight. Since you'll be in that class too, don't kill them yourself, get one of your staff to do it.
If you really are in Sardine