Cell Phones Infest Airplanes By 2008
Watch out whoever owns those ridiculously expensive in-flight phones...Almost half of all airlines plan to offer in-flight mobile phone connectivity for passengers by the end of 2008.
Airbus already has plans to replace "no-smoking" signs with "no mobile" signs.
Cellphone friendly flying is popular in Europe, possibly serving as a test market to the U.S.
Not looking forward to hearing of the intimate details of your seatmate's love life?
Take heart, using cellphones planes could end up costing as much as $3 a minute.
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Comments:
I have had it with these @&#@!$% phones on this @&#@!$% plane!
Maybe I missed something, but how the hell do they expect to be able to collect the money?
small base stations, called picocells, provided by OnAir, a technology company backed by Airbus, Europe's aviation giant. The picocells will use satellite links to allow mobile phones to be used during flight without interfering with ground-based networks
from the economist.com article. I'm guessing it will work like roaming.
LOL -- I guess Cingular will be dropping roamers left and right.
Widespread mobile phone use on an airplane... I imagine it would be like 100 people having phone converstaions in MY LIVINGROOM, while I'm trying to relax, read a book, watch TV, or take a snooze. And I can't leave. For 3 hours.
Please God don't let this happen. Most of us see how fast behaviors like manners and consideration for others in public just aren't being practiced anymore.
Ill be hiding out in the lavatory for some peace and quiet...
I am already aggravated just thinking about being trapped in a cabin with some extroverted Type-A and his cell phone. I'm now rooting for Cingular.
$3 a minute sounds perfectly reasonable seeing how I have to provide my own equipment and my own existing service and pay minutes as well. The in-seat phones aren't even that much and don't require a monthly service plan to use.
They need to ban screaming children from planes before they worry about banning obnoxious cell phones.
The thought of being trapped in your seat next to some moron or barbie yapping loudly on their cell phone for hours on-end during a flight might make me a prime candidate for a little "air-rage".
Love it. No one used the built in phones on planes because they're insanely expensive. The solution: let people use their own cel phones at insanely expensive rates. Yeah, that'll work.