Community weekly poll: If cell phone usage were allowed on flights today...
- 9/12/06 12:55 PM
Cell phones are not the worst enemy
by mbavier - 9/12/06 7:26 PM In reply to: If cell phone usage were allowed on flights today... by Marc Bennett
After spending more than 5 million miles in the air I can think of many offensive things. 250 pound Gold's Gym wannabees in tank tops exhibiting masses of body hair and odor. Well-dressed gentlemen chewing tobacco and spending a three hour flight spitting into a cup (in first class, yet!)
People cackling loudly and keeping up a running commentary on the insipid in-flight movie.
A cell phone is a tool. It has never been demonstrated that a cell phone disrupts any aircraft equipment.
The problem with cell phones, as with the items mentioned above, is one of human courtesy or the lack thereof.
Most (certainly not all) business travellers have learned that shouting into a phone does not improve communication. And for some of us spending many hours incommunicado can be very disruptive to our business endeavours. For this, and many other reasons, I strongly believe that the use of cell phones with appropriate restrictions to enforce some minimum courtesies should be allowed. One restriction should be the use of a headset to reduce the amount of disruption. And at all times it should be the role of the flight attendant to instruct any offender who insists on speaking at a level louder than necessary to either lower the db level or cease.
Cell phones are not the worst enemy
by professor_iii - 9/12/06 8:17 PM In reply to: Cell phones are not the worst enemy by mbavier"A cell phone is a tool." I totally disagree it a crutch, for those who have not learned the fine art of planing ahead to avoid the crisis of 'immediate attention' and not having a staff that can handle the minor bump in the road.
"And for some of us spending many hours incommunicado can be very disruptive to our business endeavours."
It's called planning ahead, being prepared.
You are not an executive or self employed...
by snidely9447 - 9/13/06 9:38 AM In reply to: Cell phones are not the worst enemy by professor_iii...which is why you don't see being unavailable for long periods of time as being a problem.
That is one reason I take red-eyes if I can.
...mike
Oh yes I am a small business owner and "executive".
by professor_iii - 2/2/07 2:26 PM In reply to: You are not an executive or self employed... by snidely9447I am an owner of a small business with several operation/divisions as I said, if you don't have the staff that can't make decisions without running every little thing by you; you either don't have confidence in your staff, or the staff is afraid of you to make decisions, because you’ve not trained them properly; OR you’re insecure in your position. Nothing in this world of business is so urgent that it must interrupt the peace and quite of your fellow air-passengers. As that old time adage goes “poor plan on your part, doesn’t mean it an emergency for me”.
What about screaming toddlers and yappers?
by hinder90 - 2/2/07 3:43 PM In reply to: Oh yes I am a small business owner and "executive". by professor_iiiIt is funny how the same people who get all indignant about people using cell phones in "inappropriate places" (anywhere they can hear them, apparently) and make a stink about a topic such as this, but would never lift a finger towards the parents who don't control their savage, screaming toddlers who kick the seat in front of them, people who feel the need for endless small talk, or the pilots who make long winded announcements to say that everything's fine in the cockpit. Let's keep things in perspective here: it is not fair to be hostile to someone on a cell phone where that same conversation to a person next to them, or even to themselves (a common occurrence when you take the bus to work) would otherwise be acceptable. Granted, if someone is being a loud jerk on their phone, deal with them appropriately. Every mobile phone user on the planet is not responsible for one person's lack of consideration. So what if you just remembered something important at work and need to call someone? Are you going to risk losing something important because of the oversensitive passengers around you? If it is short and quiet, your complaints are more of a disturbance than the call itself. Besides, the people who have poor cell phone etiquette wouldn't obey your little "no cell phone" rules anyway, and probably wouldn't give a hoot about your huffy indignation either.
Cell phones should definitely not be used on airplanes
by m0kume - 9/12/06 7:30 PM In reply to: If cell phone usage were allowed on flights today... by Marc Bennett
I am tired of hearing someone's personal conversations in restaurants, buses, trains. I do not want to hear it trapped with some idiot on an aircraft.
Seperate them PLEASE
by ehalpe - 9/12/06 7:49 PM In reply to: If cell phone usage were allowed on flights today... by Marc Bennett
If cell phones are allowed on flights, especially overseas flights, then please make sure that the people using them have to do so away from other passengers. I've been on some LONG overseas flights and feel that I'd come close to murder if I had to put up with some of these impolite and noisy people.
So yeah, I think it would be ok to allow them, just not where they can disturb anyone else. Though come to think of it, the airlines aren't going to want to put in soundproofed doors etc, so we'd most likely have to kill them due to frustration anyway LOL
Insanity defence anyone!!!
by bknowledge - 9/13/06 8:37 AM In reply to: Seperate them PLEASE by ehalpeI work in a somewhat relaxed office, but an office all the same and I have one co-worker that will leave their phone on their desk with the lastest club hit as a ringer. Three rings and I'm ready to knock her out, now this times 20 on a plane for 3hrs.
No jury in the world could find you gulity. Not one that I'm on anyway. LEAVE THE PHONES TURNED OFF OR USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!
Stop using your phone!!!
by hogan - 9/13/06 8:49 AM In reply to: Insanity defence anyone!!! by bknowledgeThere was a report last year of a hotel manager who got rid of his mobile office facility and it led to increased productivity.
People use these gadgets to try and prove that they are needed and important but in fact they are just meddlng in other people's lives. Turn your phone off and get a life; if you need to stay in touch with people for the time it takes to make a flight, don't fly - the world really can get by without you.
I have designed phones since 1988, I even own one but I always put it down and ask myself if I need to make the call before I do.
P.S. - I also turn the ringtone off.
two reasons
by lchien - 9/12/06 7:54 PM In reply to: If cell phone usage were allowed on flights today... by Marc Bennett
Cell phones usage should not be allowed on flights.
Reason #1, is, it's just not going to be appropriate behavior in close confined spaces. You thin the guy who talks incessantly aththe dinner table next to you in the restaurant is bad, this is ten times worse multiplied by ten times the people density.
reason #2, no one is really sure about the efects of so many fairly powerful RF transmitters working in close proximity to some sensitive receivers in the cockpit. A recent IEEE Spectrum article said that testers found it inconclusive for now but that crucial interference would likely occur on ocassional flights due to intermodulation between all the transmitters or to a out of spec handset splattering across the spectrum. I don't want to jeopardize our air safety... as you can tell, I'm an electrical engineer.
An engineer short of facts
by infamouschris - 9/13/06 6:45 AM In reply to: two reasons by lchienThe plan to use phones is being tested in the UK, the idea is very simple, the airline has a booset connestion that sends the mobile signals via a sat com link, it is turned on when the plane is above 10,00ft where according to CAA figures there is no risk of any signal leakage.
The point on the signal leakage causing problems to the other passengers, why not mention the fact that if you are a frequent flyer you are subject to a massive increase in radiation (I am not sure which one) but enough for my airhosts and hostesses to currently be being checked for increased rates of cancers, not from a mobile phone but from the increased radiation from height.
so cell phones DON'T work on planes, yet?
by Marysue - 9/13/06 7:06 AM In reply to: An engineer short of facts by infamouschrisSo in Canada they would never work, even with satellite, as we can't get communications as it is, except in the burbs. So no one here has actually tried to phone on a plane, have they? No one here actually knows if they work????
Yes, cellphones work just fine in aircraft.............
by scottbeck - 9/16/06 2:32 AM In reply to: so cell phones DON'T work on planes, yet? by MarysuePROVIDED the aircraft is within "sight" of a cellphone mast. And that is part of the problem. I Canada, large and sparsely populated, aircraft would often be too far (weak or no signal) from a mast.
In densely populated areas there is the reverse problem - the phone is "seen" by too many cells - because it is high up, rather than "line of sight" at ground level. This confuses the phone network. That is the real reason you are asked not to use them on aircraft. See the following from The Economist...(part of a longer article about what a truthful in flight announement would say - some of it is scary!)
"Please switch off all mobile phones, since they can interfere with the aircraft's navigation systems. At least, that's what you've always been told. The real reason to switch them off is because they interfere with mobile networks on the ground, but somehow that doesn't sound quite so good. On most flights a few mobile phones are left on by mistake, so if they were really dangerous we would not allow them on board at all, if you think about it. We will have to come clean about this next year, when we introduce in-flight calling across the Veritas fleet. At that point the prospect of taking a cut of the sky-high calling charges will miraculously cause our safety concerns about mobile phones to evaporate."
If cell phone usage were allowed on flights today
by professor_iii - 9/12/06 7:56 PM In reply to: If cell phone usage were allowed on flights today... by Marc Bennett
I Being of the age that can remember and used the "partyline", when a telephone was a luxury, I think that the cellphone/pda's/blackberrys/ laptop computers should be banned from use in/on 1) automoblies, trucks, buses, airplanes: 2) Restaurants, movie theater - any type of theater, hospitals, government buildings, and any place that more than twenty people meet/gather.
Other: The Cone of Silene
by Bob_Meyer - 9/12/06 8:21 PM In reply to: If cell phone usage were allowed on flights today... by Marc Bennett
I think all airline seats should be equipped with the Cone of Silence, technology pioneered by Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, and the Chief of the super secret spy Agency Control. Cell phone use would be allowed only under the Cone of Silence. If it worked as well on airlines as it worked on Get Smart, it would be extremely effective in controlling cell phone annoyance, as well as being more entertaining than most inflight movies.
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