[SpiderMatt]

This is yet another example of government regulation holding back development of American industry. So sad. The best flight I was ever on was a flight on Korean Air (god I love that airline) flying from Washington, D.C. to Seoul, Korea. Those of you who have never flown such a flight might be able to imagine that it's pretty long. Luckily, I had internet the nearly the entire 15 hour flight thanks to wifi on the plane and internet from satellites. I think airlines in the U.S. have just started at looking at options to do the same for planes in the the states. Nothing seems to have come from it so far.

The great thing about cell phones is that they can be used for more than talking. Anyone who has ridden the train or subway in Japan might recall some "no talking" rules. Passengers of the subway are requested to not talk on their cell phones. Instead, people are often using their phones to text, read, listen to music, play games, watch TV, or do anything else that people do on their phones these days. There are stores in the U.S. that require customers to not talk on their cell phones while in the store. It shouldn't be too hard to imagine that airlines might require the same thing of their passengers so as to create a more comfortable atmosphere for everyone on the plane (if I were head of an airline I know I wouldn't want my passengers complaining about that one loud guy who couldn't shut up for 10 minutes on the whole damn flight). This would still leave open other services offered on cell phones, especially texting, which I think would be more useful on a flight than calling. Everyone always thinks about the worst scenario when new things become available. I, for one, want to know why it's taken so long to get to this point. The FAA needs to own up and quit holding us back.