Cell Phone Plans

Should Cell Phones be "A Loud" on Airplanes?

July 14, 2005

Recently the question of whether cell phone use should be allowed during flight was brought to the attention of a congressional subcommittee. Many voiced concerns of safety as well as brought up the annoyance factor.

Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio stated, "I don't think anybody wants to take a chance a plane might go down because some idiot is having a totally trivial conversation." He worries the phones would interfere with an aircraft's navigation and communication system.

A recent study by IDC, a marketing company of 50,000 consumers showed that only 11% favor the idea to lift the ban of cell phones. 64% of consumers agreed that they would like to see text and data messaging become available but would prefer that cell phones use stay quiet.

The flight attendants also are concerned that they would become cell phone enforcers and would prefer that cell phones remained banned from flights. There could be many passengers annoyed with one mans conversation, creating added stress to their job.

Cingular wireless company agrees that the ban should continue. On June 8 Paul R. Roth, Cingular's executive vice president for external affairs, wrote to the Federal Aviation Administration stating, "We believe there is a time and a place for wireless phone conversations, and seldom does that include the confines of an airplane flight."

Mark Siegel, a Cingular spokesperson also stated, "We think that if the ban were to be lifted, and that's a big if, we would urge consumers not to talk when they're in flight, even if they have the opportunity to. It really is an issue to us of, dare I say it, basic courtesy. We think there's a place to use cell phones and to talk on them, and there are places not to. For example, a theater, a crowded restaurant or, God forbid, a house of worship. One of the other places where you shouldn't be talking on a wireless phone, we think, is in an airliner up at 35,000 feet where you have 150, 250 people who are captive in a closed space."

Others feel that lifting the ban would be a good idea and would create time for revenue generating as opposed to down time while in flight. However, the revenue generating conversing is exactly what consumers are worried about hearing during their flight. Not all flights are business related.

By 2006, a Europe based aircraft, Airbus will join with Siemens to offer in-flight cell service to its passengers. For now, cell phone use is not allowed in the United States but who knows what the future holds. The safety issues of cell phone interference need to be addressed first.

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