Snakes on the Plane?

[GGT]

Meaning cell phones.

The US FAA is considering new regulations, allowing airline passengers to use cell phones during flight. Since they don't really seem to "interfere" with the plane's communications systems, the "safety" concern is moot.

Personally, I would hate to hear the person next to me, let alone a plane full of people, chatting on phones. OMG that would make the flying 'experience' horrible, even worse than squeezing three to a row, fighting for armrest space.

I'd hope some airlines would have their own restrictions, with limits for texting-only.

What do you think?

[LittleFuzzy]

I see no reason why "things that would annoy GGT" should trump "things that annoy the cell-user" like not being able to use said cell. There may be other reasons to not allow it (and how expensive would it be? It's not like coverage on the ground) but I'm not particularly aware of what they may be. I use my own phone as little as possible.

[Flixy]

You can already call anyway, and realistically most people will be on Facebook or texting anyway. Or listening to music, reading ebooks, etc.

[Timbuk2]

EU is following suit.

It would be much the same as it is on trains or buses at present. They're a regular part of life now.

[Khendraja'aro]

I'm pretty sure that the service providers will have kittens.

Active cellphones on a plane place a very high strain on the infrastructure due to the very frequent handovers.

[Timbuk2]

Not that I really understand the technology, but I thought that new trains/metros now come with a single-point hot-spot tethering type thing, which acts as the signal to which mobile phones on the train/metro can connect - rather than each mobile phone on the train/metro connecting individually to the infrastructure. Not sure how that single tethering point on each train/metro then connects to the infrastructure though.

Wouldn't planes then use that same single-point set-up?

[Aimless]

I see no reason why "things that would annoy GGT"

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...g-is-annoying/

[LittleFuzzy]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...g-is-annoying/

Same thing. I don't give a rat's ass if it would annoy a Congressman or Cabinet-member either, I don't value them any higher than I value GGT.

[Dreadnaught]

Well, there's something to be said for being in a confined space listening to someone on the phone. It's demonstrably annoying, as the article points out-

Some research has shown that overhearing one side of a conversation is more distracting than overhearing two people talk. Wheeler himself has said he would find it annoying to overhear a cell phone conversation on a plane. But the FCC proposal would "remove outdated rules," without requiring airlines to permit in-flight calling, he said.

Whether this needs to be a government rule, I'm not sure. But I'm pretty confident that Quiet Cars on public transit serve a legitimate social purpose of keeping travelers less-insane.

[Ominous Gamer]

Best part of my job is being allowed to boot assholes talking on their cellphones.

[LittleFuzzy]

Whether this needs to be a government rule, I'm not sure. But I'm pretty confident that Quiet Cars on public transit serve a legitimate social purpose of keeping travelers less-insane.

I spend plenty of time on buses and light rail and cell conversations don't bug me. I read through them without a problem, same way I do most conversations. What I had a hard time reading through was the street-preacher shouting up a storm on the train home from Oakland last weekend.

[Loki]

Same thing. I don't give a rat's ass if it would annoy a Congressman or Cabinet-member either, I don't value them any higher than I value GGT.

It annoys 59% of people according to the last poll I saw. This isn't quite like a bus or a train by the way; in the latter, you at least have the theoretical possibility of going somewhere else if your neighbors annoy you. There's nowhere to go on a plane. Plus a fight on a plane over someone being super-annoying would probably cause slightly more damage...

I read about a good compromise that would allow people to text but not talk. They should allow talking in business class. We'll see how fast those ticket prices plummet.

[earthJoker]

If it's anyoying the airlines may still restrict this. I think it's no problem for an airline to have stricter rules than the law. Also similar to quite cars on trains, there could be quite compartments in the plane. Of course if the plane is large enough to have compartments.

[Hazir]

Given how autistic the average air traveller behaves these days I wonder how they even would notice the person next to them is yapping away on his phone. Sometimes it's impossible to get as much as an acknowledging nod from the person sitting next to you for the better part of a day.

[LittleFuzzy]

You don't need to be acknowledged by everyone you're nearby, you freaking extrovert. Let us poor introverts have their peace. I nod, and say hello, and engage in brief small-talk because it's what's expected but it makes me feel uncomfortable the whole time.

[Steely Glint]

Have any of you even been on a plane, and do you not remember how noisy the fucking engines were? Unless it's in the same aisle or the one immediately in front of behind I doubt you'd even be aware a cell phone conversation was taking place.

[Loki]

And if there were a dozen? I think you'd notice.

[GGT]

Imagine a cabin where half the passengers are talking on cell phones, and that strange phenomenon of speaking louder when there's a bad connection -- as if that helps. Not to mention those who get louder with every beer or cocktail. The decibel level would be much higher than the low buzz of conversations between seat mates.

It might make flight attendants' jobs that much harder. They already get tuned out during safety protocol, have to help parents with crying babies, cut off the drunks, and keep the "peace" on the plane. It'd be difficult to ask a loud and obnoxious talker to keep it down. Makes more sense to limit the "talking" to texting, IMO.

[Ominous Gamer]

Have any of you even been on a plane, and do you not remember how noisy the fucking engines were? Unless it's in the same aisle or the one immediately in front of behind I doubt you'd even be aware a cell phone conversation was taking place.

I can't recall ever noticing the plane engines beyond lift off.

Now the AC vents, those little fuckers are loud...

[Hazir]

You don't need to be acknowledged by everyone you're nearby, you freaking extrovert. Let us poor introverts have their peace. I nod, and say hello, and engage in brief small-talk because it's what's expected but it makes me feel uncomfortable the whole time.

I was thinking about the people you have to actually 'share' an armrest with in economy. (happy note: I found out I have enough miles to get two business class tickets to Istanbul next year)

Have any of you even been on a plane, and do you not remember how noisy the fucking engines were? Unless it's in the same aisle or the one immediately in front of behind I doubt you'd even be aware a cell phone conversation was taking place.

Also true, altough newer planes appear to be less noisy. What's way more annoying is children screaming (typically because their parents are clueless about what to do), one screaming child is enough to make any phone conversation impossible.

Imagine a cabin where half the passengers are talking on cell phones, and that strange phenomenon of speaking louder when there's a bad connection -- as if that helps. Not to mention those who get louder with every beer or cocktail. The decibel level would be much higher than the low buzz of conversations between seat mates.

It might make flight attendants' jobs that much harder. They already get tuned out during safety protocol, have to help parents with crying babies, cut off the drunks, and keep the "peace" on the plane. It'd be difficult to ask a loud and obnoxious talker to keep it down. Makes more sense to limit the "talking" to texting, IMO.

Well, I don't know about you, but I know that whole drill by heart and even you must have noticed that airlines are switching to doing the whole thing on screen in the back of the seat in front of you. As for the drunks; if they cut them off before they become a nuisance that might actually work in reducing their problems on the job. Now, what exactly is the problems you expect the passenger on the phone will cause them?

[GGT]

Talking on cell phones would be like playing video games with the sound on, or playing music without head phones. It's extraneous, unnecessary noise. It'd bother the hell out of me (personally) unless I had some sound-cancelling head phones, and I imagine it could make it harder for flight attendants to control/subdue the cabin environment. They dim the lights for the same reason.

[Hazir]

Talking on cell phones would be like playing video games with the sound on, or playing music without head phones. It's extraneous, unnecessary noise. It'd bother the hell out of me (personally) unless I had some sound-cancelling head phones, and I imagine it could make it harder for flight attendants to control/subdue the cabin environment. They dim the lights for the same reason.

Really? Hearing a person talk is so annoying you can't imagine it being allowed? What about people talking with other people on the plane? Should that be outlawed too? Or is it just that the phone call is annoying because you can only listen in on one side of it?

It's also a well known fact that the food service is the first and most effective way of keeping people where the airlines want them; in their chairs.

[GGT]

Using cell phones as "talking telephone devices" during flight is currently "outlawed" on US planes. The EU has different rules and regulations, apparently.

I have no objection to the FAA or FCC changing these rules...so long as airlines can make their own rules more stringent, as they wish, to accommodate their customers.

[Flixy]

Most people won't be calling anyway. I travel with trains and buses a lot and most people are just texting or playing games or on Facebook anyway. It's not like all the people on a plane would suddenly start non stop loud phone calls. And even then, annoying things shouldn't be illegal, if people find it that annoying, the airlines are welcome to make their own rules.

[LittleFuzzy]

I can't recall ever noticing the plane engines beyond lift off.

I don't consciously notice them much, until I realize how quiet everyone and everything else is and figure out those are actually just as loud as always, they just seem quieter. My understanding (which may be wrong) is that's because we're not consciously aware of the noise being generated by the engines, soundproofing shifts and dampens things to a register that's hard to pick out, but it's still there.

[Lewkowski]

Uh people talk on planes even without cell phones....

[Khendraja'aro]

Uh people talk on planes even without cell phones....

Yes, Lewk, thank you for that insight. Now, if you may, please recognize the problems with cellphone conversations which already have been brought up if you could have been arsed to read the thread.

Seriously, you jump into a thread with a statement that is so fucking obvious that any intelligent person would have thought: "Hey, I wonder if someone else already brought that up?"

But, no, not Lewk. Lewk is the hero who thinks: "Well, d'oh, the morons! Discussing about people talking on a plane!" and proceeds to tell us all about it, how wonderfully stupid we are.



This is the equivalent of a business meeting where one of the attendees has fallen asleep and thusly missed the first part of the meeting. Suddenly he rears up and yells: "If we sell more stuff we earn more money!"
Everyone else falls silent for a moment until the boss clears his throat and says: "Thanks, Lewk, for that valuable input. Now, we were talking about the budget for R&D?"

[Dreadnaught]

I'm concerned you may be on the verge of giving yourself a peptic ulcer.

[Hazir]

Using cell phones as "talking telephone devices" during flight is currently "outlawed" on US planes. The EU has different rules and regulations, apparently.

I have no objection to the FAA or FCC changing these rules...so long as airlines can make their own rules more stringent, as they wish, to accommodate their customers.

Actually, that is not true; it is perfectly legal to use a phone on a plane for as long as I can remember. They just don't want it to be your cellphone; they rather have you use the one that makes them $3 a minute. The rules most likely will not be set according to what is safe or what annoys some hyper sensitive type less, but how much money they can make on a call.

[littlelolligagged]

Have to buy an *insert your airline here* mobile temporary plan or simcard to access the cellular service in the sky, just think of how much they can clean up by doing that and still selling their wifi.

I assume it is already possible to make a phone call using google voice, skype, or a similar service while in flight using the airline's wifi?