Cellphones: lifting the in-flight ban

Think cramped seats, no legroom, and screaming babies make air travel miserable? said NANCY TREJOS in _USA TODAY_. “Imagine what it will be like to sit next to a person yammering on his or

her cellphone” for the whole six hours from New York to Los Angeles. That nightmarish scenario could soon become reality, now that the Federal Communications Commission has announced it is

reviewing its 22-year-old ban on in-flight cellphone calls. The FCC banned those calls over fears they’d interfere with ground-based telecom towers, but new technology means mobile devices

can now be safely used on board—for an extra fee. The FCC must have lost its mind, said MITCH ALBOM in the _DETROIT FREE PRESS_. “Are they trying to start a war up there?” Forcing passengers

to listen to their neighbors’ inane chatter when all they want is to sleep or to read a book would be a certain catalyst for air rage. Permitting cell use need not lead to anarchy at 25,000

feet, said CECILIA KANG in _THE WASHINGTON POST_. The FCC could establish firm rules governing the use of cellphones that would keep things civil. Airlines could set aside a time window for

phone calls on any one flight, or set up quiet cabins, or let passengers send text messages but not talk. Airline staff would be the ultimate arbiters of in-flight manners, with the ability

to cut off the connection between the plane and phone networks. For most people, allowing cellphone use would actually make flying “a lot more pleasant,” said STEPHEN STROMBERG, also in the

_POST_. They’d no longer suffer “abject boredom on lengthy flights,” and since they’d mostly text, email, or use their Internet connection, they could get a lot of work done—quietly. That’s

what I’m worried about, said NORA CAPLAN-BRICKER in _NEWREPUBLIC.COM_. When I heard about the proposal to lift the ban, my first thought was how I would “squander my own chance to, however

briefly, unplug.” Sure, I could leave my phone turned off during the flight, but if my day-to-day efforts not to check my texts, Twitter, and email “every few seconds are any indication, I

won’t. The last time I read uninterrupted for two hours, I was definitely on a plane.” The person whose in-flight cell use I want to be protected from isn’t you. “It’s me.” SUBSCRIBE TO THE

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