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Cellphone Use On Planes Coming Soon?
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Fri Oct 19, 2007 12:58 AM
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
And you thought you loved half hour train rides (Score:4, Insightful)
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
mithra save us (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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: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
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.
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...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:5, Insightful)
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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:Uh...you can do that now (Score:5, Insightful)
They also miss the wireless notebooks that are operational and probing for their home networks.
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Compromise with text (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Compromise with text (Score:4, Funny)
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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