FCC To Consider Cellphone Use On Planes 183
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.'"
please don't (Score:5, Insightful)
I think this would lead to in-flight homicide.
Re: please don't (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.
Re: please don't (Score:5, 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.
Re: please don't (Score:4, 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.
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Well if the on-board femtocell repeaters work well enough, you won't have people shouting into their phones, other than to overcome cabin/engine noise. I could see requiring earbuds, (and who wouldn't want that anyway).
With ear buds, you can carry on a conversation just as quietly as talking between people sitting adjacent.
But it requires a good connection. I rather suspect the airlines will put in repeaters than promptly price it out of most people's comfort zone.
The most annoying thing would be people p
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Its because you are having trouble hearing.
I once had an employee who talked at the top of his lungs on the phone, land line.
I ordered him an amplify phone receiver, and the difference was like night an day. He was slowly going deaf, and didn't realize it.
If planes required ear buds, there would be a lot more peaceful flights. But you know that won't happen.
Re: please don't (Score:4, Insightful)
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It doesn't matter how good the connection is - idiots still SHOUT INTO THEIR PHONES for whatever reason. Either they have poor volume control (and never developed their "inside voice") or
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Yeah, that's exactly why I get on a plane, to have an unending conversation with my seat mates and allow them to honk on about anything that goes pop in their brains. Forget it.
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Even with a perfect link cell connections are shit. Compare what your cellphone sounds like to Speex 16kbps; it's remarkable.
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It better be when Speex gets 4x the bandwidth of GSM compressed voice (which really only gets around 2.4-4kbps). It's also why they quantize the hell out of the speech and filter the audio - I think the voice filters are actually narrower than a landline.
Re: please don't (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.
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It's like people who fly while they have the flu, is their trip so important that they have to infect a whole cabin packed full of people so they can suffer to.
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well just about every plane I've been on already has expensive calling options..
just don't fly domestic(roaming is friggin expensive too, especially if you don't know when you're switching to roaming since the call is on..)
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"you see officer, he started fiddling with an electronic device which stores enough power to threaten the aircraft's integrity. We had to stop him"
Re:please don't (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.
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So basically, you don't have issues with cell phones on flights because your cell phone providers are so ridiculously over price that its a non-starter.
We don't have your roaming issue. You can be on a jet aircraft for 8 hours here and never leave your home area. There are no roaming fees in our country, which is likely larger than your entire continent.
God I wish you European fucks would stop trying to compare yourselves to the way things are in North America. We have freaking counties larger than some
America is bigger than that (Score:2)
US phone plans typically have no roaming charges over the 48 states - it's easy to spend six hours in the air with no cost increase for cell phone use, and thus no deterrent to yacking.
In Europe, it's hard to take a flight over an hour without crossing an international border.
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How about data allowed, voice not. That would probably make more sense as a rule of the airline, not something for the FCC to mandate.
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Funny, people's cellphone use doesn't really seem that annoying on a train...
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Better shove the participant out of the aircraft door just to be sure.
Trigger Happy (Score:2, Funny)
*ringtone*
*pulls out GIANT brick phone*
What!?!
No!!!!
I'm on an airplane!!!!
I'm on an airplane!!!!
No!!!
What?!?!?!?
I'm on an airplane!!!!
Yes, an airplane!!!
No, I can talk!!!!
What?!?!?!?!
No, I can talk!!!!
HELLO? (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
Bus (Score:2, Insightful)
Cell phone use is allowed on busses (metro and inter-city), and it doesn't seem to be a huge problem there. Why should I assume that planes would be significantly worse?
Verbal diarrhea (Score:5, Insightful)
Cell phones not a problem on busses and trains?
Have you ever took a train during rush hour?
Terror right there.
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Have you ever took a train during rush hour?
*taken. Granted, your grammar is still better than most of those talking on phones in public.
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You can change your seat on the Bus and you don't typically ride the bus for 4 hours.
There are two VERY big reasons. I don't want to sit next to a guy discussing his hemorrhoid problem with his wife (or having a shouting argument with her) when I can't get away from him.
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Says a man who has obviously never take a bus from Minneapolis to St. Louis -- 18 hours over 3 buses, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder the whole way with no more freedom to move around than you'd have in a plane.
And that's not even a long bus trip.
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Yes it is.
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Says a man who has obviously never take a bus from Minneapolis to St. Louis -- 18 hours over 3 buses, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder the whole way with no more freedom to move around than you'd have in a plane.
And that's not even a long bus trip.
That is a very, very long bus trip by the standards of almost all the world.
A short bus trip is the one I'm late for: 12 minutes to get to work.
The longest trip I've ever made by bus was about 10 hours.
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On the bus, you can get up and take another seat away from the asshole with the phone.
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That's right. You only have to speak over the sound of the diesel engine, the wind noise, the traffic noise, and the road noise.
Airplane cabins are probably someplace in the 70-80 dB range, depending on the type of plane and where you are sitting. That's just about what you'd expect from moderate traffic that includes large vehicles or high speeds. I'm sure there are some buses that are quieter than planes, but it doesn't strike me as a major difference.
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In a metro system of even moderate size you can be on the same bus traveling in the same direction for 2+ hours. That's not a long plane ride, but it's not a trivial amount of time either. And inter-city routes can obviously be much longer.
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yeah but air travel sucks. even before you get on the plane you're hauling your bags to the airport, waiting an hour at security, some guy's grabbing your nuts. Then the plane is cramped and you're jammed in with other people. it's hard to get up let alone walk around. planes are a much more stressful experience than buses.
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I'd rather put up with two hours of airline passengers than thirty minutes of the sorts of respectable citizens that ride the bus in Washington anywhere east of Rock Creek Park. People eat fried chicken and throw the bones on the bus floor and guffaw at each other; last time a lovely lady told the driver to "shut the fuck up and drive" after he told her to stop bothering all the other passengers.
I see $$$ signs! (Score:2)
Actually I wouldn't be surprised if the airline mafia were behind this, with large paychecks for the FCC officials who push this through.
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Airlines will love this. Even at $1/minute, passengers will rake up pretty good bills by the end of the flight. And I doubt they will stop at a buck a minute, because above 10k feet, well, they got you by the balls.
Many airlines already have phones installed in the backs of seats that passengers can use, and have for some time now. You pay for them by credit card. In the countless times I have flown I have yet to see someone actually use them. I can assure you the airlines have not been raking in the money with that.
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Airlines will love this. Even at $1/minute, passengers will rake up pretty good bills by the end of the flight. And I doubt they will stop at a buck a minute, because above 10k feet, well, they got you by the balls.
Many airlines already have phones installed in the backs of seats that passengers can use, and have for some time now. You pay for them by credit card. In the countless times I have flown I have yet to see someone actually use them. I can assure you the airlines have not been raking in the money with that.
Yes, but the psychology is different.
With the existing phones you have to physically pay before hand. It doesn't matter what the cost is, having to shell out coin before hand is a serious psychological block.
Now if you allow people to use their own phones, even if it's at a higher cost (roaming charges) people wont think about the cost because they dont have to pay it up front. Instead they'll just bitch about "bill shock" when they receive a $1400 mobile phone bill from making phone calls through out
Re:I see $$$ signs! (Score:4, Insightful)
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Airlines will love this. Even at $1/minute, passengers will rake up pretty good bills by the end of the flight. And I doubt they will stop at a buck a minute, because above 10k feet, well, they got you by the balls.
Many airlines already have phones installed in the backs of seats that passengers can use, and have for some time now. You pay for them by credit card. In the countless times I have flown I have yet to see someone actually use them. I can assure you the airlines have not been raking in the money with that.
Well I have used them, they're fine for a quick call, but they're hard to hear over the low quality and loud engines.
BA have phased them out on the new planes, and turned them off about a year ago on the old planes.
But then I remember flying back in 2008 on TAP when in flight mobiles were allowed. The problem wasn't people talking, it was the teenagers who didn't know how to put their text message tone on "silent"
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Airlines will love this. Even at $1/minute, passengers will rake up pretty good bills by the end of the flight. And I doubt they will stop at a buck a minute, because above 10k feet, well, they got you by the balls.
Actually I wouldn't be surprised if the airline mafia were behind this, with large paychecks for the FCC officials who push this through.
I don't know about US plans, but typical intercontinental roaming rates for UK phone contracts are well above $2 a minute, nearer $3.
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they can't charge you for an incoming call.
Oh ya think?
Ban Removed Due to New Revenue From Micro-Cells (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.
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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.
Or, you know, the aircraft is still climbing and is therefore more likely to encounter problems. Fewer distractions means the passengers can listen to crew instructions instead of posting last minute "OMG I'm gonna die!" selfies to Instagram. 10k feet is cruising altitude, and is also when passengers are allowed to move around (and also when flight crew starts moving around as well-they stay seated as well during climbing/descending).
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10k feet is cruising altitude
Looks like we're going to need a bigger plane. The only planes that would be cruising at 10k feet would be non-pressurized ones. Even on a short hop, a jet is going to be cruising at least 25,000 feet.
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It's an example of the wealthy oppressing the poor, like laws that prohibit crossing the street between intersections even when it doesn't violate any vehicle's right of way. Or laws that require bicyclists to stick to the right edge of the roadway when other slow-moving vehicles don't have to.
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If you think it's easy to connect a call at 9500 feet, you're high.
Also cellphones distract people way more than talking in person - and we don't want 300 people distracted during take-off and landing, just in case there are hiccups.
Finally, it's the worst time for something to go wrong. So, while modern planes shouldn't have a problem with calls being made/received, you still want to check.
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I connect all the time at 9500 feet. Maybe because I live in Cripple Creek, CO.
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just in case there are hiccups.
This sort of thing keeps coming up, but its a stupid statement.
You know what you, as a passenger get to do when the aircraft has issues on its climb out? If the pilot can't solve them on his own, you die. Thats what happens.
Nothing they are going to tell you is going to save your life if they're telling you on the climb out when the shit goes down. Its already too late. You'd be much better off not knowing whats going on and being in a state of ignorant bliss.
Re:Ban Removed Due to New Revenue From Micro-Cells (Score:4, 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.
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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.
Sorry to spoil your ignorance, but that hasn't been a problem in 15 years.
Whats more, all the existing data links in aircraft ... use cellular. New Boeing and Airbus aircraft have their own cell phone number for fucks sake. GoGo inflight wifi? Cellular.
This DoS attack against the cell system was solved before phones where '1g', let alone anything digital or anything modern.
Telco Billing (Score:2)
If you consider it when a cellular phone is in the air it is an equal distance from several towers, so it is effectively difficult for the telcos to bill the users properly and the airline to get a cut - so tell people it's a safety issue and they can't use it. More likely the safety issues, which bring an airline down because of on-board mobile phone use are yet to be discovered.
Just hope I'm not on the aircraft that reveals the problem.
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If you consider it when a cellular phone is in the air it is an equal distance from several towers, so it is effectively difficult for the telcos to bill the users properly and the airline to get a cut - so tell people it's a safety issue and they can't use it. More likely the safety issues, which bring an airline down because of on-board mobile phone use are yet to be discovered.
Just hope I'm not on the aircraft that reveals the problem.
That was one of the rumors as to why the ban went into effect in the first place, "Big Telco" didn't like it. Never saw anything factual to support that theory,* just what people were saying, even the owners of the cell phone store where I worked briefly in the 1990s.
*Not that it can't be true, I just never saw any documentation supporting it, and I never really looked.
Good Lord Stop Teasing Me! (Score:2)
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I've been hearing this for DECADES and it never happens.
Choose a different carrier if you're that bothered. Emirates offer it on 300 flights a day.
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They fly everywhere I do and ignore the FAA rule? Seriously?
Emirates have an amazing network, if you're happy to change once you can get from pretty much anywhere in the world to anywhere else. Nairobi to Berlin? Tokyo to Manchester? Sydney to Delhi?
Emirates couldn't give a stuff why the FAA say, just like delta couldn't care less about what the CAA says.
Please don't (Score:2)
"Mary said, to John that I told Sue what Jane said about Mark... Yeah I would so love to get high with him. Did you see what Mary was wearing at John's on Friday, I wouldn't be caught dead in that, it is sooooo 2012. I gave my phone to this geeky neighbo
Getting a signal to the ground (Score:2)
>Airlines would have to install equipment in their planes that would communicate with cellphone towers on the ground.
How those people aboard the doomed aircraft on Sept 11 were all able to make phone calls again?
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>Airlines would have to install equipment in their planes that would communicate with cellphone towers on the ground.
How those people aboard the doomed aircraft on Sept 11 were all able to make phone calls again?
By flying low. I rarely get a signal above 10k foot, and have never managed to get one above 20k foot.
Apologies to George Carlin... (Score:5, Insightful)
Them: "Mind if I yak on my cellphone in this enclosed space?"
You: "Mind if I fart?"
legality doesn't make it reality (Score:3)
What I haven't seen mentioned is whether you'd have to pay a premium for such calls. Assuming you have to pay cruise ship rates (over $2 a minute), that would definitely discourage people from making long chit-chat phone calls to pass the time of their flight. Likewise, I'm sure a time limit on calls could be easily implemented. With such conditions in place, I'd probably be ok with it, and I'd certainly appreciate it if I was ever in a situation where I really needed to make a phone call en route to my destination.
Calm your fucking tits, people (Score:2)
Fucking wonderful (Score:2)
In-flight WiFi (Score:3)
You know, a lot of people in here are complaining about in-flight cell use being annoying. But we have had in-flight wifi for awhile now, and you can use the phone over that service any number of ways. Is that being abused?
TO me, the solution is simple.. you enable the access, but you disallow people from making or taking voice calls via simple airline policy. Text only. This allows people to use their own text and data plans and keeps the annoyance factor to the same level as wifi.
American Airlines has a policy (Score:2)
I flew on American Airlines last week (after the recent relaxation of in-flight electronics rules). They offered WiFi on the plane for 'a nominal fee', but specifically prohibited VOIP and other phonecall-like behavior.
I HOPE that sets a precedent - I REALLY do not want to be on a plane with cell phone yakkers.
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And did this plane have phones in the back of the seat in front of you, that they had no problem if you used while paying a ridiculously high rate?
They aren't trying to stop you from making a call, they're trying to force you to make the call through their service in order to collect ridiculous fees. The nice side effect is that those ridiculous fees keep almost everyone from doing it. But make no mistake, its all about the money from the airlines perspective.
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And did this plane have phones in the back of the seat in front of you ...
No, it did not. In fact, I can't remember the last time I saw a 'flight phone' in a seat. I think most airlines have ripped those out in favor of 'entertainment centers'.
Re:Here comes the flood.... (Score:5, 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.
Re:Here comes the flood.... (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
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“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.’ ”
Draw your own conclusion as to why he was against it.
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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.
And right there you have the crux of the problem. This guy does not understand human nature.
When people can't hear, they shout.
Without a headset requirement, there will be shouting.
And most phone speakers are so weak you have trouble hearing in even a slightly loud environment. People will resort to the speaker phone function and then you get to listen to both sides of every conversation at once.
The best way to get people to talk softer is to require them to use earbuds or headsets.
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The CEO who stands to make tens of millions of dollars from this says its a good thing? Well, gee, guess I better just take his word for it.
Anyone who talks on the phone next to me on a plane will have my elbow in their side for the duration of the phone call. It's only fair.
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You're a sucker.
This is a cash grab. They will charge big bucks, and the business commuters will pay, because their company will want them in meetings. You think the airlines give two shits about degrading service? If it scares off a few passengers, what do they care? They don't want volume, they want margin. And most people who fly have no choice anyway.
I've taken quite a few international flights, and never seen a phone call. Perhaps there are some locales that allow them, and maybe they don't get c
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uh they want volume? that's what most airlines have been tweaking for, which is why they try to fill the last spots with practically free tickets(price of airport fees).
and who charges those bucks? not the airline, at least in eu. you have to watch out for roaming fees though.
do you know who was previously charging big bucks? why the fuck do you think the inflight entertainment controller had a dialpad and the unit a credit card reader built in ? ? ?
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Except people tend to talk louder on the phone than in person
And they'll be screaming over the jet engines on top of that tendency.
This will self correct (Score:2)
For the first few weeks it may be obnoxious. Then the chatterboxes will get their bills. There will be much screaming (not on the airplanes) and word will get around that using a cell phone on an airplane is really expensive and not something that one should actually do unless the matter is urgent.
You know, sort of like the air phones we have now.
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Except people tend to talk louder on the phone than in person...
I heard that part of this is because mobile phones, unlike fixed line phones, don't echo back what you say. We (us old fogies, anyway) are so conditioned by years of hearing our own voice coming back out of the speaker (albeit at a low level) on a fixed line that when we use a mobile phone, our brains immediately think it's not working and we crank up the volume.
I said we CRANK UP THE VOLUME.
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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.
And how is this any different from a bus or a train?
Seriously have you ever refrained from taking a bus because someone might be on the phone?
And yes, sometimes not being able to use the phone for hours does hurt.
Someone chatting a couple seats away from you won't hurt. I promise.
What? (Score:2)
Can you speak a bit louder? There is this loud whirring noise in the background!
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there was absolutely no noise at all.
Then your mic is broken. Duh.
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Hearing half a conversation (Score:5, Informative)
Even though it's really no different to people talking to the person next to them
Hearing half a conversation is worse [cornell.edu] than hearing a whole conversation.
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Two problems with phones: first , people seem to have the need to scream into them. Second, it is extremely annoying to just hear one side of a conversation. No, it does not add to convenience to have to listen to 3 people around you talking loudly into the phones. It makes an uncomfortable experience even more uncomfortable. People can live without their phones for a couple of hours. Really.
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Dude, I can understand not RTFA. But it's there in TFS. They'll have microcells on the plane.
Of course, the question is, CDMA or GSM?
And I don't want the guy next to me shouting into his phone for the next 5 hours.
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Since I doubt they could get away with informing the parties that the call is rude, I think a little message every minute with the price of the call so far would be good.
1st minute
"This call has cost $10.00"
2nd minute
"This call has cost $25.00"
3rd minute
"This call has cost $45.00"
...
>:)
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So I don't see how even any special equipment in planes can work with such low signal levels.
The article seems to suggest communication will be through a third party, not direct to cell towers (and not to cell towers at all, if you're calling a fixed line).
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Actually it probably goes from plane to third party to cell tower - that would be simpler than the third-party handling the call.
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Thats what happens for the inflight wifi already, just talks to cell towers that have some antenna pointing more towards the sky rather than along the ground plane.
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I'd prefer a "loud car" in trains, with the assumption of civil behaviour required in all others. And each seat in the "loud car" should have a lubed crowbar embedded in it, provided to help the loud passengers remove their heads from their own backsides.
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I've taken a night train across Canada. Insomniacs, infants and phone users were courteous enough to venture to the refreshments lounge, where they were screening the BTTF trilogy.
On buses and cattle-class planes there's generally no common area to rest away from one's seat.
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There's *no* reason for using a cell phone on a plane.
Citation needed.
Here's a reason: I want to phone home and talk to my wife and child
Here's another reason: I want to join a conference call, which is tricky enough to arrange in the first place with people in the States, Europe and Asia all on it.