Up, Up and No Way?

Cell phone use has become intertwined in most of ours daily lives. I myself have a hard time of tolerating it.

I no longer have a land line, I dropped it over 7 years ago, but I do not want to be disturb at every possible waking/sleeping minute through out the day.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee should have a priority on cell phone use while driving a car. Too many Multitasking going on while the driving is secondary.

_{It would be fine except so may idiots don't realise the microphone is sensitive so they'll shout..}

I'M ON THE PLANE...YES...I'M A REALLY IMPORTANT PERSON...I'LL SPEAK UP, AS YOU ARE A LONG WAY AWAY AND I HAVN'T GOT THE ATTENTION MY EXALTED POSITION DESERVES...

Del

From what I read here, the very wittily titled HANGUP bill makes no sense and will not be passed. Logically, if someone objects to the noise of people talking on mobile phones, they must object to them talking to someone near them, so the bill should aim to make talking on planes illegal, or perhaps ration it. It would however, be reasonable to completely ban ringtones on aircraft, requiring people to use the "vibrate" mode on their phones.

With regard to the use of phones in cars, the US seems to be lagging the UK here. It is well-established that using a handheld phone in a car is as dangerous as having consumed a considerable quantity of alcohol, and that many innocent people die as a result of others using phones while driving. People have been jailed in the UK for making a phone call while driving, which is entirely reasonable. Recently a lorry driver was jailed for sending a text message while driving, which seems even dumber.

Del, you as usual have hit it right on the head !! the problem has nothing to do with the use of cell phones, but most of the "look at me" prima donnas that think that the whole world should observe and applaud their every move and decision. As far as the use of phones while driving, there should be an "ability to walk and chew gum" test that should be waaaay before most people get close to a car let alone driving.... All in favor of pummeling loud obnoxious cell phone people say "AYE"

If I really am that important I'll be in FIRST CLASS with somebody else paying for it.

We do not have a problem with that in Australia..................all mobile phones must be turned off before boarding the aircraft.............. and stay off.............. for the duration of the flight...........or more correctly until you enter the terminal building at your destination.

This applies on all commercial interstate and intrastate flights

I would assume that QANTAS international flights are also the same.

I can just imaging being on a redeye coming in to DC from LA. As it gets close to 0700 every moron with an ego will be calling the office. The cacaphony will be horrible and after being stuck with a 0200 obligatory movie the passengers will revolt....

Might be one way to get some new blood in Washington.

the passengers will revolt....

What's that, the passengers are revolting!!!!!!!

You can say that again.

yes,I do

so are you currently allowed to use your phone on airplanes in the US? Australia still bans it.

If you're going to ban phones on planes why not ban it on buses and trains too. This is a stupid bill.

The reason given as to why mobile phones are banned on all Australian airlines is that there is a possibility that they could interfere with sensitive electronic equipment on board the aircraft...............this suits me fine.

Sensitive electronic equipment LMAO on a plane the electronics are much more tollerent for a number of factors 1. Solar radation and high energy particles are at much high levels so usually you would have parts that are radation hardened(ie can tollerate this exact problem) 2. People lives are at state so many semiconductor manufactures will not allow there normal commercial parts to be used (most data sheets now have a disclosure stating the part should not be used in such enviorment) 3. It is purely a way of obtaining a more peaceful flight (imagine that phone rage in a flying bus and no way out) the poor hostie would be constantly asking people to lower their voice. 4 A phone call to someone in the plane can only result in bad news ie they can't change the problem the person is ringing about, ie business deal falls thru... all other calls would be personal and trivial with the same result ie wait til i land

With regard to cell phones interfering with aircraft equipment:

It is not, in fact, the airplane itself that the cell phone signal is likely to interfere with. The equipment on board the aircraft is (generally speaking) over-designed to compensate for any and all types of signals that the aircraft might encounter. The equipment is also fairly recent / up to date. While there are, of course, many older planes still in the sky, they all have regular maintenance, service bulletin updates and so forth.

The problem is especially with the Air Traffic Control system. In the US at least, the ATC system is extremely overburdened and the technology is in large part old and out of date. Thus the 'no cell phones during take off or landing'. I suspect that it is unlikely that a cell phone would actually interfere with such communications – but this is one of the areas where no one is willing to accept any risk. Even one crashed plane due to some one chatting on their phone is unacceptable.

Now, I'm not sure about ALL flights to all destinations or anything, but in my experience at cruising altitude high above the US, there is no cell signal available anyway.

I like the idea of people paying to sit in a cell phone section. It makes good capitalistic sense. Also, I am generally against more (and frivolous) laws that are virtually unenforceable. Granted if someone made a call they could be blacklisted from flying etc., but it seems unlikely a flight attendant is going to tackle them and forcibly take away their phone. Though if that did happen, it would be hilarious!

No; better is to allow the airlines to charge people for the privilege to chat away mindlessly on their phone during their flight.

Granted 'people talking' is one of the top ten items on the 'annoyances during a flight' list, but perhaps having a section or some such would lessen the noise level in the rest of the cabin for the non-chatters.