
Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: cellphones on planes
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 13:02:50 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Bob Frankston <Bob2-19-0501 () bobf frankston com> Date: March 25, 2007 11:16:52 AM EDT To: dave () farber net, ip () v2 listbox com Cc: "'Mike O'Dell'" <mo () ccr org>, "'Ron Guerin'" <ron () vnetworx net> Subject: RE: [IP] cellphones on planesOf course airplanes are very dignified places unlike buses. After all, we don’t want the riff-raff talking while we are watching opera on the video screens in the plane. For passenger who must cough the airline will provide lozenges and, if necessary banish them to the sound proof rest rooms in the rear of the plane. I’m puzzled – Mike O’Dell says I’m undermining my point when he is far more explicit about the FCC enforcing polite behavior. Huh? Who appointed them the social police? Is Martha Stewart going to be the next chairperson?
Remember that we've had phones in planes for a long time and they were becoming more affordable as Verizon tried to reduce the price before pulling the plug on the service. I don't remember many complaints about them -- perhaps because they weren't used much or maybe just worked very badly. Cell phones may be used a lot more because they are work though more likely because they are iconic. There's no reason to assume the price will be better though the market size might make that happen.
Banning a technology to control behavior is unacceptable mission creep for the FCC and is the kind of hidden agenda that makes it hard to have rational policies. It also causes collateral damage such as preventing other kind of communications and connectivity technology. IANAL but I argue it’s illegal for the same reason the courts overturned COPA which is why the FCC had to find a technical excuse.
If Wi-Fi doesn't provide the same technical excuse for banning the technology then there would be no victory in banning cellular other than to spur the further development of VoIP products while making it difficult to charge per minute if there is general connectivity otherwise the airline would simply rent our Wi-Fi handsets. Of course this assumes there is a reality to the technical problems the FCC cites and no willingness to fix it.
Safety is another victim -- not so much because of being able to talk to others as in the example flight 93 but simply because aviation technology seems to proceed at a very very cautious pace whereas consumer technology improves rapidly because it is not so risk- averse. As with the 700Mhz debacle -- carving out special limited purpose technology islands leaves the occupants of those islands with little choice and little recourse.
Ideally providing Internet connectivity to the passenger would also help the aviation industry by giving it abundant connectivity for safety and other purposes.
I'm rambling a bit because as I write this I’m looking at a so-called webcam. I don't use it much but it's so inexpensive that I don't need much an excuse to pay $30 for a nice one. When I read about pilots making bad decisions because they can't see which engine is in trouble I wonder why there aren't a few dozen if not a few hundreds around the plane and inside baggage compartments and inside crawlspaces just in case. A simple network would make it easy to place them without having to redesign the plane and at a few ounces they would add a lot less weight than a single first class seat-a-ma- jig.
{Of course patent bottom feeders might thwart this by having a separate patent for each camera location just like they attempt to patent bits outside of wires}
It's bad enough that continue to confuse generic technology with particular purposes. It's worse when we ban technologies simply because we can imagine one application that annoys us.
-----Original Message----- From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net] Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2007 10:32 To: ip () v2 listbox com Subject: [IP] cellphones on planes AMTRAK has the quiet cars djf Begin forwarded message: From: Ron Guerin <ron () vnetworx net> Date: March 25, 2007 6:11:15 AM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] cellphones on planes David Farber wrote: > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "Mike O'Dell" <mo () ccr org> > Date: March 25, 2007 12:39:34 AM EDT > To: David Farber <dave () farber net> > Subject: cellphones on planes > > Bob Frankston undermines his own point with an extrapolation into the > ridiculous. It's not about technology or Luddism, it's about polite > behavior in a public space and reasonable concern over the expected > escalation of impoliteness that would result from turning an airliner > into a communal phone booth. The state of "Modern Air Travel" has > already made "Greyhound in the sky" a charitable description of the > experience - the addition of numerous people shouting at invisible> parties would make it seem all the more like The NY Port Authority Bus
> Terminal, not merely a bus ride. In theory, one could have it both ways. I deal with cellphones on the commuter rails, and I find the ringtones worse than the conversations, which are pretty annoying. However, a possible compromise from the not so distant past may be worth considering. The railroad used to operate a smoking car, where those who cared to, could go inhale the exhaust of a hundred or so other smokers through their cigarettes. I would welcome a "cell phone car", where those who think that loudly sharing with strangers their ringtones and household instructions to their spouse is a wonderful thing can be together... away from the rest of us. - Ron (for IP if you want) ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/@now Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/@now Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
Current thread:
- cellphones on planes David Farber (Mar 25)
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- cellphones on planes David Farber (Mar 25)
- Re: cellphones on planes David Farber (Mar 25)
- Re: cellphones on planes David Farber (Mar 25)
- Re: Re: cellphones on planes David Farber (Mar 25)
- Re: Re: cellphones on planes David Farber (Mar 25)