can you imagine.....
....if they begin offering cell phone service on airplanes? Seat-back phones have existed for years, but the rates are so expensive that people who use them normally do so only to advise people on the ground if there is a delay or change in plans. With the advent of internet flight tracking, most people on the ground keep their own tabs if they are meeting someone at the airport, so the need to call from the plane has dropped. The seat back phones are too costly for someone to conduct a prolonged business conversation.
In some countries, such as Germany and Sweden, certain cars on long distance trains are reserved as "quiet cars" where you are not allowed to have extended mobile phone conversations.
In Germany recently, I rode an "RE" (Regional Express) train which is unreserved and thus did not have a designated "quiet car" (unless one wagon was the quiet car and it wasn't marked). A young man (late 20s or early 30s) sat behind me and had a phone conversation with an automobile broker about a new car purchase that lasted over an hour, all the way from Duisburg to Dortmund. Because of the ambient train noise, he had to speak louder than in normal conversation. Because I am fluent in German, I understood every damned word of the conversation and could not tune him out.
I would have moved except that the train was nearly full, so twenty or so fellow passengers were also privy to every word of his conversation. These trains have a central automatic door with compartments on either side of the door, so half the car was exposed to the same torture as I.
It's just a break down of general courtesy and thoughtfulness for others. It's everywhere. On that same trip, I had flown within Europe on British Airways, after arriving in London from the USA overnight. The plane was less than half full, the seat in the middle was vacant and there was a guy in his 20s seated on the aisle. Before departure, he invited one of his coworkers (there was a group of four traveling on business together) to sit in his aisle seat and he moved into the middle seat. I was not asked if I minded*, but since I was at the window and could lean against the wall, it didn't encroach much on my personal space.
However, the two began to discuss at full volume their personal lives for a full two hours on a three and a half hour flight to Kiev. Both were from London and worked for Sotheby's, so one would THINK they would have some manners and know how to act around people accustomed to etiquette (except I wasn't one of their customers). Because a full breakfast was served, I was trapped at the seat and had to listen to them. Even noise-canceling headphones couldn't drown them out, they were that loud.
I had to wait until the breakfast trays were cleared (they came back for coffee and tea two more times after serving the meal, so it took a long time to clear). At that point, I pretended to have to use the lavatory, but I never stopped at the lavatory: I made a beeline for a row of unoccupied seats in the rear, flipped up the arm rests, and attempted to eke out an hour's sleep for what was left of the flight. The chatty twosome never acknowledged my presence, nor did they seem to notice that I never returned to my original seat for the remaining duration of the flight.
I know that the English are supposedly reserved, which might have explained their failure to acknowledge my presence, but they showed very little reserve with respect to sharing their private lives out loud with their fellow passengers. One of the cabin attendants did notice I'd moved ("weren't you the gentleman in 10A?") and I explained that I couldn't hear myself think any longer in 10A, the twosome chatted nonstop, without a moment's silence. The attendant said he would have told the two to tone it down and let others enjoy some silence, but who would want to sit next to people after having asked them to turn it off?
I don't know if their employment at Sotheby's gave them a sense of entitlement so that the normal rules of courtesy did not apply to THEM, but these two people were well-dressed and articulate.
*the flight was less than half full, so by inviting his coworker to sit with him, he was subjecting us to a full-house situation. The polite thing to do would have been to get up and find two seats together near the back of the plane, or at least across the aisle from each other. Of course, had the plane been close to full, inviting his coworker to sit next to him would have been less egregious.
