FCC chairman Ajit Pai is backing off from his predecessor’s proposal to allow cell phone calls on airplanes during flights.
And Pai isn’t opposed because of possible technical issues, but because of the potential annoyance factor to passengers.
Here’s his statement, via Ars Technica.
“I stand with airline pilots, flight attendants, and America’s flying public against the FCC’s ill-conceived 2013 plan to allow people to make cellphone calls on planes,” Pai said. “I do not believe that moving forward with this plan is in the public interest. Taking it off the table permanently will be a victory for Americans across the country who, like me, value a moment of quiet at 30,000 feet.”
The original plan put forth by FCC chairman Tom Wheeler never gained much traction, and several other government agencies, including the Department of Transportation and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, vowed to ban calls on flights if Wheeler’s proposal was eventually approved.
Wheeler apparently didn’t even think about how much allowing calls would piss off frequent flyers, as the proposal talked about the (seemingly true) advanced of technology that made calls safer.
Then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a proposal to lift the in-flight calling ban in November 2013, saying that “modern technologies can deliver mobile services in the air safely and reliably, and the time is right to review our outdated and restrictive rules.”
At the time, the FCC said its only role was to “examine the technical feasibility of the use of mobile devices in flight” and that the Department of Transportation would still be responsible for determining whether “allowing voice calls is fair to consumers.”
And now, it appears that sanity has prevailed. Just because something may be possible and safe because of the advances of technology, it still can be completely annoying, disruptive, and a net negative to everyone else aboard the plane.
