Silence Aloft Is Under Threat

Federal regulators are reassessing the rules barring phones in the air even as some international airlines are gradually introducing Internet access to their planes. And two European carriers said recently that they would become the first to proceed with cellphone service, in three-month trials on flights within Europe next year. Of the thousands of comments the federal government has received on the issue, many focused on the fear of being stuck next to someone jabbering away. But a different concern has emerged: the dread of hearing one's own voice on the cellphone. Some business travelers, the bread-and-butter customers of airlines, say they privately relish the digital downtime at 35,000 feet. Managers who are at the constant beck and call of electronic devices while tethered to the ground, say they have come to think of the airplane cabin as a place to nap, think or even work - but in a focused way that precludes easy interruption or multitasking. Forget the cone of silence. Many have come to cherish the airplane as the long metal tube of silence. Once cellphones and BlackBerries are allowed to breach that silence, the solution may not be so simple as keeping the devices turned off, since business associates and bosses will expect to be able to get in touch. Travelers say the no-phone policy has saved them from their own compulsions.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Matt Richtel]
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* To Surf Web While Aloft, Fly Foreign (for Now)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/04/business/04boeing.html