This will be a nightmare if it's not regulated in some way. Having to listen to one side of strangers' phone conversations is a special kind of torture.

I commute to work by train 30 minutes each way, and if it weren't for the existence of a "quiet car" where cellphone use is forbidden, I would probably have multiple convictions for assault and battery by now.

Shazzer

Dubai has all the sweet-ass shit -- except for liquor.

jetexas

@scrag: Totally! Some people don't know how to speak softly even without a cell phone. Those are the one that have their cell phone speaker volume turned up so loud you can understand every word the person on the other end is saying.

For those of you that travel and get up during flight... keep your damn hands off the persons seat in front of you to pull your fat ass out of your own seat! Use the arm rests to push yourself up!

dirk1965

@scrag: Agreed. Keep the phones off and TRY to enjoy your flight. Seriously, the world will still be there when we land and you can use your phone then.

ViperBorg

Let's hope this never makes it state-side. Traveling with the public is annoying enough - the last thing I want to listen to is people yammering away during an entire BOS-LAX trip.

scrag

no funny photoshop editing this time? :)

mastakilla

I flew emirates a few times times this year while I was out in the Saudi area and I must say even without cells allowed Emirates is an amazing airline, easily the best I've ever flown with

UndeadOverlord

I don't understand the calls... every time i fly my cellphone is dead, there is no signal at 30000 feet... heck at 15000 there is no signal unless of course you use the plane Sat phone.. even if they make the plane a Giant Antenna at 30000 it wont work... can anybody explain?

mrxcel

The difference between someone yakking on their cell and someone yakking on the GE Airphone is that the Airphone is designed to deal with the loud white noise that the plane creates when in flight. Your cell phone doesn't. So what do people do when they can't hear the person on the other end? They YELL!!! That oughta be fun...

homerjay

@jetexas: My friend there is no such thing as a country with no liquor. In Dubai it's available in all hotels and a lot of restaurants. You can even buy from the suppliers that supply such places, but you need to apply for special license. Otherwise you can purchase it from the duty free shops at the airport

But if you really want to enjoy it at home, I know a guy that can deliver all types and brands right to your doorstep. And charges close to nothing.

Hamood

God help us all.

I fly a lot for business, and if this comes to N. America, I expect I'll be imprisoned for murder because of it. I fly into a city in the morning (or night before), spend the entire day in meetings, rush to the airport, and fly home in the evening. I'm exhausted by the time I'm on the plane; I just want to relax or finish off my work on my laptop. If there is some douchebag beside me talking loudly about some stupid shit for 2 hours, I would go apeshit.

Even worse would be transatlantic flights. People killing time by talking the whole way...ugh.

GregH

For the love of god you people are overreacting just a TAD. I fly ~125k miles a year. Been a frequent flier since the Airphone rolled out (the original old skool GTE Cordless one). This isn't going to be much different than that was from a pax perspective.

It's not like people are going to be using their airtime minutes; the service is still going to be too expensive for casual use. At $1 to $2 a minute people are not going to be chatting away. And the same self-important assholes who used Airphone to blather about whatever will still be doing it and we'll still be giving them the same withering looks. THe difference is that now if you want you'll be able to text in flight. THAT is useful.

But an annoying bastard is going to be an annoying bastard, phone or no. Personally I'd rather have someone gabbing into a handset than trying to make conversation with me.

@mrxcel: No, no floating cellsites, no monster antennas. The aircraft will have land and/or satellite connectivity to the land-based phone 'network' and will have a picocell on board that will service passengers. It'll help a lot with avionics and headset interference since the picocell can transmit at very low power and the phones on board won't be blasting out a full power signal trying to reach towers on the ground.

Buford T. Justice

For the love of god you people are overreacting just a TAD. I fly ~125k miles a year. Been a frequent flier since the Airphone rolled out (the original old skool GTE Cordless one). This isn't going to be much different than that was from a pax perspective.

It's not like people are going to be using their airtime minutes; the service is still going to be too expensive for casual use. At $1 to $2 a minute people are not going to be chatting away. And the same self-important assholes who used Airphone to blather about whatever will still be doing it and we'll still be giving them the same withering looks. THe difference is that now if you want you'll be able to text in flight. THAT is useful.

But an annoying bastard is going to be an annoying bastard, phone or no. Personally I'd rather have someone gabbing into a handset than trying to make conversation with me.

@mrxcel:

Buford T. Justice

Why is there no edit button....

person65535

I'm an Emirates skywards silver member! The picture of the plane is an A380 not an A340 to be precise...
@ There's loads of liqour as hamood pointed out but the worst thing about dubai. the "broadband" isn't any faster than 2mps *sob*.

person65535

@UndeadOverlord: good airline.

flyboy