Your flights may soon get a whole lot louder. The Wall Street Journal reports that just weeks after the Federal Aviation Administration eliminated electronics restrictions from flights, the FCC is now planning to propose that passengers be allowed to use their cell phones in the air. Cellular data would still need to be disabled during takeoff and landing, but after the plane reaches 10,000 feet, passengers would be free to make phone calls.
The meeting between the FCC and the FAA is scheduled to take place in December. If the two groups agree to enact the change, each airline will be able to decide whether or not it wants to implement the new rule. The biggest roadblock to this rule change might be the annoyance factor — no one wants to be stuck listening to a stranger’s phone call on a five-hour flight. The technology to allow for airborne calls does exist, but the patience of passengers and airline employees might not.
