Originally Posted by
YadiMolina
Virtually every international arrival area in any of the 30 or so countries I've visited have some sign prohibiting cell phone use. And for the past 5+ years, I've seen very little enforcement of this rule lately, with the exception being "power trippers" who bark their orders to make their point, then leave or abandon their attempts at enforcement. I assume at the beginning of the cell phone age, it was an extreme threat that smugglers and such could be relaying instructions to their confederates. Now, due to their ubiquity, the cell phone threat is judged differently. With a tiny camera or bluetooth earpiece, officials would be none the wiser if cell phone was activated during an interaction. If customs officials world-wide were serious about the threat, they would install cell signal jammers and other technological defenses.
There's been a move by some countries -- including at least one here in Europe -- to look into having something akin to Mobile Passport Control. So countries are not only going forward with increasingly accepting the reality that mobile smartphone use just about everywhere is part of the norm, they are increasingly headed toward the acceptance of use of such devices in the public inspection areas. And I would say that of the passport control employees whom I know assigned to such functions in Europe, the Americas and Asia/Pacific region, most are used to smart phones being used in the inspection waiting areas/lines and expect to be shown them when asking to see an itinerary, boarding pass or things like that.
I am at ports of entry/exit more days than not each month -- across multiple countries -- during nearly all months of the year for years now, and there is rarely any meaningful attempt made to prevent most cell phone use unless and until the passenger is engaged in an in-person dealing with a passport control and/or customs agents. At ORD, I find it rare for CBP to make a fuss about most cell phone use around the baggage belt waiting area as long as the users are being courteous and paying attention when personally engaged by a CBP employee; it was very much a different story 5+ years ago. Are there still some phone sticklers in CBP at ORD? Yes, but the worst of the lot there for phone use is an older guy who likes to bark even at the ORD summer-job wheelchair pushers for things that happened who knows how far back, and he's mostly stuck working the fixed stations doing passport control for US citizens IIRC. Do I have long phone conversations at ORD when waiting for international checked luggage? No. Do I send quick messages at times or read or watch stuff on my phone? Yes. Would it be a big deal if they took my phones? Not generally.