wbur.org
support wbur today!
Listen to this story
Cell Phone Use on Airplanes
photo

By host Tom Ashbrook:

Attention all air travelers. Heads up. The leg room is lousy, the meals are gone, on-time arrival feels like an oxymoron and now this: a major move is afoot to unleash non-stop cell phone use on passenger airplanes in mid-flight. Cell phone use free-for-all at 30,000 feet.

New technologies may soon skirt the safety issues that have kept cell phones on the in-flight forbidden list. Cell phone companies want it. Airlines are leaning there. The FAA looks ready to sign off.

But most fliers hate the idea. Four hundred ring tones, four hundred bellowing conversations — in your captive ear for hours.

Hear about cell phone use on airplanes ready for take-off.

Guests:

Alexandra Marks, senior national correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor

Tom McDaniel, president of the Tranport Workers Union Local 556 represents 8500 flight attendants at SouthWest Airlines

Paul Levinson,
Chair and professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University, author of “Cellphone: The Story of the World’s Most Mobile Medium and How It Has Transformed Everything”

Randy Peterson, editor and publisher of Inside Flyer magazine

Susan Gurley, Executive Director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives

David Coiley, Director Aeromobile Strategic Relationships and Marking ARINC Inc

Christine Rosen, senior editor at The New Atlantis

 
 

Comments are closed.

Recent Shows
America’s Anger Problem?
Thursday, March 11, 2010

Are Americans angrier than ever, or does it just seem that way? We’ll look at our hot-under-the-collar country.

Comments [199]
 
War-Gaming Iran
Thursday, March 11, 2010

Think tanks in Washington are playing out the scenarios of an Israeli attack on Iran. We’ll look at the tough results they’ve found.

Comments [76]
On Point Blog
IED’s in Afghanistan: Hard Numbers

The Department of Defense provided On Point with some statistics about IED attacks in Afghanistan, where there has been an increase in the use of such weapons over the past 14 months. It’s striking to see the spike in numbers — from 2,677 IED incidents in 2007 to 8,159 last year.

More »
 
Christopher Hill: U.S. Troop Withdrawal ‘On Schedule’

U.S. Ambassaor to Iraq Christopher Hill spoke with On Point live from Baghdad today as early voting gets underway, part of the run-up to Sunday’s elections. “So far so good,” Hill said, despite scattered violence. Hill said that the plan to withdraw U.S. combat troops by Sept. 1, and to leave only a residual advisory force of 50,000 or fewer, remains “very much on schedule.” Observers worry that a spike in violence could derail that timeline.

More »
 
The Supreme Court’s Radio Silence

For radio listeners, a key element of our conversation about the Supreme Court gun-rights case was conspicuously absent: the audio recording of the oral arguments. Here’s why.

More » | Comments [5]