Cellphones on Airplanes???

Are you kidding???

Published on December 17, 2004 By just john In Current Events

I just read an article in Information Week concerning the use of Cell phones while airborne. It seems that the FAA is going to examine the current ban on such activity. Give me a break!

Already if I choose to go see a movie at a theater for around $30, I have to listen to the barrage of teenie cell phones going off until the movie starts. I might be ok with this if it stopped when the movie started. No! Inevitably someone will feel compelled to answer that vibrating phone (assuming the have been kind enough to turn the ringer off) and have a conversation. I want to stand up and kick them in the head and ask where the hell are your manners. Are your parents primates? Besides, I don't care that Suzie kissed Johnny and later tonight they are going to do it.

Now the FAA is about to say it's ok to have an oh so personal conversation, RIGHT ON THE PLANE. ACK!!! I am going to be forced to listen to your intimate details about the private parts of you that I care nothing about. After all, we are strangers. We are I swear! Just because you have a seat in my general area, this doesn't make us friends or even acquaintances.

I propose the use of cell phone jammers. (Great article on the use of them Link) BUT, the FCC says I can't use one of them because the cell phone companies have already paid for their spectrum. "It would be just like stealing." I say my personal space is mine and you are stealing from me with your rouge frequencies.

I know cell phones have their place. I am attached to one the better part of the day. However, if the situation ever presents itself that I might be infringing on your right to not know anything about me, or those little idiosyncrasies that make me who I am, you can rest assured I will do my best to move away from you. I'll do this with a polite "excuse me", a quiet and graceful exit, and I am sure that it will be away from all others if not in another room.

Comments

Danny Bassette

on Dec 17, 2004

You wait, they will implement this idea and then the phones will start messing with the airplane controls and the plane will crash. Then, maybe, they will rethink cell phones. Or, more likely, raise the price of airfare to cover the damages, at the same time the airlines go to congress for bailout money...

just john

on Dec 17, 2004

Amen! Sounds a bit like a conspiracy theory, but funny thing is ... the idea is entirely plausible.

IanTyger

on Dec 17, 2004

Well, the airlines are going to have to install microcells in their aircraft for this to work. Without that, while cell phones can connect intermittently to base stations, they can see too many and move too quickly for most cell systems to be able to handle airborne conversations.

That having been said, anyone want to bet they'll charge a whacking great premium, the same way they do on current airphones? It's not like people haven't had the option to talk on the phone the last few plane rides I've been on

Dr Guy

on Dec 17, 2004

Actually that is a misperception. Airlines have been using Cell phones for years, you just had to pay their rate. They do not interfere with a plane's electronics, but like IanTyger pointed out, there are logistical problems that have prevented them from being used in the past. But since they have been used (the airline ones) that means they know how to fix the problem.

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