In-flight calling ban passes hurdle in House

It looks like that proposed ban on in-flight calling has now passed its first major hurdle in Congress, with it snagging some much needed approval from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in a voice vote on Thursday. While the so-called "Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace" (or HANG UP, really) would make permanent the current ban on in-flight cellphone use, it'd also go one step further and put a stop to all in-flight voice communications, which its co-sponsors hope will prevent airlines from charging some passengers to use their phones while also charging others to sit in a phone-free section of the plane. Of course, the bill still has a long ways to go before it becomes law, but giving the recent polling on the matter, it would seem to have a better than decent chance of going all the way.

[Via Slashdot]

[johdaxx Posted Aug 1st 2008 5:58PM]

Maybe they'd like to also ban people that talk loudly to their neighbors, or crying babys, or people that just smell bad.

Pretty bad that we feel we have to legislate politeness.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 3rd 2008 11:36PM]

I agree with no in-flight voice calling on flights with cell phones. However, I think data should be able to be used. WiFi Internet on laptop computers, and data for pda's. people should be able to email and SMS message while on flights