Keep Our Planes Mobile Phone Free
from the peace-and-quiet dept
Even if there is no technology or safety reason for banning mobile phone use in the air, it appears that most people would prefer their planes be kept mobile phone free. A new survey shows that people don’t want to deal with having to listen to others yakking away on their phones — even if they already listen to them yakking away to each other. People just assume that mobile phone chatter would be much more annoying, either because it’s always annoying to only hear one half of a conversation or because mobile phone talkers tend to be loud. Many seem to prefer the fact that a flight is “downtime” when they’re simply prevented from doing anything that involves being connected. If anything, this seems to say more about how our “always-on” lifestyle is impacting people. They crave time when they’re forced to be off, because they know it’s the only time when it’s simply impossible for them to be on call.
Comments on “Keep Our Planes Mobile Phone Free”
Loud would be an understatement
The same people that can’t understand the concept of speaking normally into a cell phone would be even more obnoxious on a plane. The droning and pressure difference cause your hearing to dull out. Due to this, Loud Hal in Row 3 would be audible in row 28.
Re: Loud would be an understatement
I read recently that regular landline phones send your voice back to you in order to get you to talk softer. This doesn’t work with cell phones because it takes too long for the sound to bounce back to you and would sound like an echo and be confusing. So, what they need to do is build it into the cell phone itself. Do that and I’m sure everyone will be a lot happier!
Re: Re: Loud would be an understatement
“I read recently that regular landline phones send your voice back to you in order to get you to talk softer.”
Coming from doing R&D and installation on a large scale Carrier Class VoIP (not talking about the miniscule stuff like Vonage or Packet8…real telecom using VoIP), I can tell you that this is pretty much true. One problem we had with the VoIP system was that it was literally too clear, particularly international calls. We had to induce some noise pointed at both ends of the call to keep people from doing the “Hello! Hello! Are you still there?!?!” thing. After mulling over it for a few days on the noise we needed, we were sitting in a switch room and realized that the white noise created by the fans was excellent for the task. We recorded that and it is currently in use in the system today.
Another problem with cell phones is that when the other person sort of fades, the talker feels the need to yell. Major problem since that’s not how those systems work. It makes it much more difficult on the microphone and the other end doesn’t hear it clearly, just louder.
No Subject Given
Seems like more people might be more happy if we bring back the phone booth…?
Re: No Subject Given
Yea, that’s a great idea actually. I’m all for phone booth in the plane. They can talk all they want, just not next to my ear.
Anyhow, with the limited bandwidth and noise objections the airlines should install instant messaging terminals.
Too bad all it takes is a few loud-Howards to ruin it for everyone.
Re: No Subject Given
In a phone booth, no one else is forced to listen to your incessant chatter … try to keep things in perspective if you’re going to attempt to contribute to the conversation.
No Subject Given
I think what would make it worse on a plain than on the street, on a bus, in a restaurant or even on a train, is that you aren’t allowed to move.
So if you are stuck next to a VERY annoying loud cellphone user carrying on a blisteringly inane conversation for hours while you’re trying to have some relaxation, you are out of luck.
At a restaurant, if the person is not amenable to toning it down, you can always ask a waiter for another table, on the bus, you can move to another seat…but on a plane you aren’t allowed unless there’s a significant number of empty seats which rarely is the case.
Hello?
HEY! CAN YOU HEAR ME? HELLO? HEY, YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHERE I’M CALLING FROM! I’M ON THE PLANE! YEAH, ISN’T THAT SO COOL! HELLO, ARE YOU STILL THERE? HELLO? CAN YOU HEAR ME? HELLO?
No Subject Given
I think people are missing the possibilities. Rather than ban mobile phone users from flights, mobile phone users should be forced to fly — anywhere, everywhere, and for no particular reason.
Use a mobile phone in a restaurant — receive a mandatory ticket to Indianapolis, Indiana. Use a mobile phone in a movie theater — receive a mandatory ticket to Nome, Alaska. Use a mobile phone while driving — receive a mandatory ticket to Baghdad, Iraq. The punishment, aside from the destination, is that these flights should be packed with other mobile phone users.
Re: No Subject Given
There’s also the cellphone countermeasure technique; whip out your own phone (turned on or turned off) and strike up a conversation with yourself, as loudly as necessary, peppered liberally with whatever you feel might make the other guy want to listen to YOUR conversation… sex would make a good topic, for example. Any sentence with the words “Sex” and “Doggie” will do, that kind of thing.
Re: Re: Skanks on cell phones
Good one Fazookus !
I did this EXACT thing about two weeks ago when an obnoxious woman was yelling into her cell phone @ a classy bar.
I had decided I wanted to relax & enjoy a smoke and a drink after an especially rough day @ the office.
This was not going to be the case due to this bitch.
I had had enough and picked up my cell phone and had a pretend conversation discussing how I really wanted to screw the bimbo sitting @ the bar a few seats down from me. I continued on once I realised she was listening and then ended my conversation by telling my pretend receiver that it was a shame her tits looked so saggy or I might have wanted to bang her.
She gave me a disgusted look and while paying for my tab I asked the bartender to send her a ” Sloe Comfortable Screw ” …
It was the most enjoyable drink I ever bought for a ” Lady ” … and I use that term loosely
Re: Re: Re: Skanks on cell phones
It appears that I’m in the minority on this, but I have yet to see anyone relaxing on a plane. Not only are planes insanely uncomfortable, they are also really loud. You can barely hear the person that’s sitting in the aisle from your window seat, let alone some hypothetical guy telling his wife to pick him up at the airport half an hour later than planned from 2 rows back. If it’s allowed to have a kid kick the back of your seat for 5 hours straight, then surely we can stop prohibiting the use of a device few of us would want to go without on the ground. If it’s such a big deal, surely some airline will try to differentiate themselves by offering phone-free flights, or phone-free sections of the plane. If you’re telling me you can actually hear anyone 6 rows behind you, you have probably never been on a plane.
Data Only
It would be cool to enable cellphone’s on planes *only if* technology existed that allowed only data calls to be placed. This way your could surf the internet or work with email, without the loud conversations. Of course, VOIP would also need to be blocked for those cutting-edge users 😉
Mobile Phones on Planes
Allowing people to use their mobile phones on planes could very well be the worst thing that’s ever happened to flying. I really don’t believe there are safety issues that can’t be adequately addressed. But there is an obnoxious factor that’s into the stratosphere (no play on words intended). People are already obnoxious and inconsiderate on their cell phones. Now imagine you’re sitting in the tight quarters of an airline seat, and you now have six or eight “loud-talkers” sitting no more than five or six feet from you, front, behind and both sides, yakking on their cell phones through a four hour flight. That could be enough to make me stop flying permanently!