Yes this is a good discussion. Let's focus in on one of your points...

OK, you choose to give up your freedom by answering your phone or pager on yachts, hotels and in the lav. So why don't you answer phones when you are on the airplane? It is actually possible and as I stated earlier in this thread I have accepted calls while in the sky. See http://www22.verizon.com/airfone/ser...f_service.html for more info.

So I would postulate again that cell phones on airplanes do not represent a significant change of the status quo. As long as the prices are roughly the same that is.

:td: Probably the most overused cornball line I've ever heard. You must be an FA for WN.

Doesn't the cell phone ban also have to do with "interfering with navigational equipment", the same reason FM radios and TV's are not allowed?

I had a pilot comment to me once that he didn't buy that at all, the odds of interference from the tiny RF emissions from a small walkman inside the metal plane, versus the line-of-sight path to the airport tower's signal, using an antenna external to the plane ...

I just hope that the punishment killing someone in the seat next to you after they've been on the phone for 2 hours is a small fine

I suspect this would increase the occurance of "air rage" and as a result be costly for airlines when flights are diverted.

Being on a bus and having someone use a phone for no real reason is bad enough, imagine trying to sleep on a 12 hour flight in ecconomy and all you can hear is the crazy frog ringtone or something equally annoying. It would be worse than having kids nearby.

Alas, the problem expands beyond the limits of my personal space and control.

Witness the boor in a restaurant, the jabbering teen, the self-important businessperson, the overly loud and jarring ringtones. Whether or not I choose to remain connected is moot when the option becomes open to others witless enough to inflict their behavior upon a captive audience. My disconnected Bernoullian nirvana is created not so much by my behavioral choices as by the limitations inherently placed on other's choices.

Have to admit that limiting personal choice, and by extension personal freedom generally goes against my grain. But "your" (the collective other, not you personally) liberty and choice should end where mine begins. To the extent that "your" choices infringe on my liberty, your options for choice should be limited.

Do you know why Walkman technology was initially developed in Japan? To protect and preserve the rights of others to NOT have to listen to your music. To keep me out of your space.

Do you understand why Walkman (and subsequently derivitive) technology has been so widely adopted in the USA? The exact socio-cultural opposite - to isolate the listener from the behavior of others. To keep you out of my space.

That is the crux here. I am free to choose, given my own priorities and needs. I am not free to control the choices of others. Given cell access on planes, I fear almost regardless of the cost others will choose to loudly connect and infringe on my space. As W.H. Auden said: "some thirty inches from my nose, the frontier of my person goes." Cells on planes definitely encroach on my 30 inches!

I think I'll go buy stock in noise cancelling technology.

I can see people carrying those cell phone signal blockers that can affect a radius of a few metres.

God i hope not. As nice as it would be to pass the time chatting with friends and family, i cringe at the thought of the noise and commotion it would cause. i can just imagine mr or ms business traveler talking the whole time. its bad enough already that phones have invaded restaurants and stores? its an eventuality though, i just hope common courtesy would prevail.

I too hope this never comes to pass. Text messaging and the like would be just fine by me (though I'd probably exercise the perogative to not make use of the technology).

However, I too think that the day will come in not too long when the siren's song of extra income lures airlines to allow for voice and text. I think I'll start saving up my PTO now so that I can take the first couple of months off after this occurs. Otherwise, I'm going to be the one starting a lot of air rage incidents after I lose my mind from hearing one too many, "Hey, I'm on the plane - in the air! Isn't it cool? Yeah, nothing else, just sitting here..." conversations.