Fight the mobile phone invasion at 30,000ft

Financial Times ^ | 3/28/2006 | Jagdish Bhagwati

[PeterFinn]

I've decided to launch a website dedicated to publishing the intimate details of cell phone conversations overheard in public. I will include and and all credit card numbers, unpublished telephone numbers, trade secrets, and what room people are meeting their mister or mistress in at the airport hotel. As long as the information is publicly announced as a part of a loud conversation the speaker should have no expectation of privacy. This ought to be fun.

[NJ_gent]

"I've always been told that cellphones and wireless devices mess up the airplanes electronics. How come, all of a sudden, it's going to be OK?"

Because it was never a problem in the first place? Think about it for a whole three seconds: would you really trust your life to a machine that's launching you 30,000 ft into the air, but which will come crashing down when an extremely low-powered RF transmitter is activated? Your cell phone is safe enough to stick next to your ear 6 hours a day, but it'll mess up avionics 50 feet away with sheet metal and various other obstructions and shielding between you and it? Your cell phone isn't a 30 megawatt transmitter, and it's not going to cause any problems with any plane.

The only problem I'm aware of is that you're traveling so fast that if you were able to talk to cell towers, you'd be talking to several simultaneously, tying up enormouse resources for a single cell user. In that case, it would seem to be more of an FCC issue than an FAA or TSA problem.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Yes Operator, my calling card number is 555-1234.

[NJ_gent]

I think what they're going to find when they start doing this sort of thing is people smuggling cell phone jammers on airplanes. Now, without even getting into the problems associated with having groups of people attempting to smuggle anything on board an airplane, let's consider that despite the propaganda regarding cell phones interferring with planes, cell phone jammers very well could cause serious problems. That, in and of itself, should be reason enough for airlines to reconsider allowing voice communications on their aircraft. What I would like to see, however, is an attempt made to get data networks (EDGE, EVDO, etc) working on airplanes. That would supply no new noise while providing many (like me) fantastic new access to work stuff.

[stuartcr]

I realise all that...I was just doing some freelance advocacy work for the guy downstairs with the pitchfork. I do this sometimes when I'm bored.

[JayNorth]

I'm more annoyed by people using the "walkie-talkie" features on their cell phones in public.

I was with my young children in an enclosed area and some doofus listens to his voicemail in "walkie-talkie" (concert-level speakerphone) mode. His messages all consisted of his loser friends from last night checking in as to how drunk he had been, what female he left with and what were their nocturnal activities, and had he found his car yet, all with the obligatory "f" word evenly spaced between each non-"f"-word.

[PeterFinn]

BINGO!!!!

[MineralMan]

Yuk!

[Publius6961]

What a freak this guy is. He's been in his ivory tower way too long.

I kind of like him.
Of course, if the FAA simply allowed other passengers to beat loud phone users to a pulp, that would also work for me.