No voice calls on mobile devices on aircraft - comment until Feb. 13!

[question everything]

If you do want, then skip this post, please.

https://www.regulations.gov/searchResults?rpp=25&po=0&s=DOT-OST-2014-0002&fp=true&ns=true


Featured Result - Docket ID: DOT-OST-2014-0002
link iconOpen Docket Folder
Use of Mobile Wireless Devices for Voice Calls on Aircraft
Agency: Department of Transportation (DOT)

The Department of Transportation (DOT or Department) is seeking comment on whether it should adopt a rule to restrict voice communications on passengers´ mobile wireless devices on scheduled flights within, to and from the United States. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that if adopted would, among other things, create a pathway for airlines to permit the use of cell phones or other mobile wireless devices to make or receive calls onboard aircraft. DOT supports the FCC´s proposal to revise its rules in light of the technology available and to expand access to mobile wireless data services on board aircraft; however, under the Department´s aviation consumer protection authority and because of concerns raised, we are seeking comment on whether to ban voice calls on aircraft.

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Travelers can communicate via emails and text, why do they need to shout above our heads? Phone calls when one does not face the partners are always shouts..

And.. I really do not care to listen to anyone's relations, or successful business deals, or details of recent operations..

As if we don't have enough flight rage..



Please kick.

[question everything]

1. Kick (nt)

[RedWedge]

2. "Travelers can communicate via emails and text, why do they need to shout above our heads?"

Because sometimes the other person doesn't have text or email capabilities.

[question everything]

3. Oh, c'mon

For many years I had a simple Nokia cell phone. No pictures, no internet, no "blue tooth." But I could use it for text, which I did. I kept using it even after it was discontinued and every time when I would go to Tracfone to add minutes, I had to get a real person to punch a 17-digit code.

So two years ago, with a new car and "blue tooth" I got a flip Alcatel phone with picture capabilities and "blue tooth."

[RedWedge]

4. Thanks for describing your experience!

My experience includes calling people who have only landlines.

[Occulus]

6. My mom has only a landline

Everyone in our family has a smartphone but her.

Everyone else is not you.

[fescuerescue]

5. I remember a time when every seat had a flight phone

Hard to believe that was almost 20 years ago. Not many people used them though.

For about a year (around 1999-2000), there was an exploit that I used that let me phone for free. That combined with the ability to use dialup over a flight phone, I had the equivalent of todays flight wifi for web browsing, email etc.

I don't ever recall a time when I annoyed someone, or was annoyed at someone using the flight phones. However it's so different today. Today everyone has a phone, where almost nobody used them back then.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. Interesting Side Note

My dad went to school with the guy who started AirPhone. He was the main tech guy behind MCI and when they went public he took his payout and went and started AirPhone. The corporate office was in an old vetininarian office about a mile and half from where i lived at the time.

Guy was the richest guy in 5 counties for a very long time, and by a whole lot. And those 5 counties involved well over a million people.

[mnhtnbb]

7. I enjoy riding the train and it drives me nuts to sit in a car with every other seat

filled with people yakking on the phone. Over nothing.

There was a woman in front of me on a trip to DC who was on her phone for an hour yakking away as though
she were in her kitchen. It was SO annoying. And the car was full. No place to move to get away from it.

If they allow phone calls on planes and I'm stuck next to someone like that, I will go nuts. Just nuts. I will have to stop
flying at all.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. Flying already sucks.

Maybe if the person next to me is holding a phone to their ear, they wont spend the whole flight jamming their elbow across the armrest into my 4.5 inches of seat space, and my ribs.

[Warren DeMontague]

8. Is this a transportation safety issue? Or a "control the behavior of others" issue?

Certainly, some pompous three piece Chadhole yammering into his phone about the latest billion dollar hostile takeover might be obnoxiously infuriating, but there might be other situations where a voice call might be more warranted. "I'm almost there, Dad, try to hang on- I want you to see your grandson before you go"

And even if not, who cares? Its not like people cant be obnoxiously loud in person, or do other assholish things on planes. And many planes already have phones, you just have to pay through the yin yang to use em.

The DOT should make rules based upon things like safety, or efficiency. Not to broadly enforce some peoples' idea of social decorum.

Flame away.

[ProfessorGAC]

11. We'll Have To Disagree, Warren

I get what you're saying but as someone who traveled a lot(!) for business, nobody is so critical that they can't let it go while they're in flight.

You're "hang on" example is fine, but that would be so rare as to be, by definition, non-bothersome.

Air travel is stressful, boring, and tedious. Encouraging excessive chatter is bound to lead to confrontation on a plane.

[Warren DeMontague]

13. I believe this is an issue on which reasonable people can disagree, lol.

And im not so deeply wedded to the idea of "i must be able to chat on le plane"--- honestly I hate talking on the phone even on the ground. I'd rather text, which maybe makes me an overgrown millennial or something.

But I suppose my objection is more about using a DOT rule to enforce what is essentially a social decorum policy.

Edited To Add: On the subject of flying sucking, I'm kind of like it's already so bad it can't get any worse. Want to be on the receiving end of a giant big pharma windfall? Design a drug that knocks people blissfully unconscious for precisely 2-3 hours and then wakes them up automatically when air pressure returns to sea level.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. I'm In As An Investor!

That's a billion dollar a month industry, Warren! If i knew that we could make such a drug, i'm kick in half my 401-k this afternoon! I'd be rich, not just comfortable, in under a year!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

12. Love your disclaimer QE ! Can I steal it:)