Cell phones on airplanes? Everybody seems to have an opinion about the FCC’s proposal (about which we reported last month) – and it seems to be the same opinion across the board.
Now the Commission’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) has made it into the Federal Register, so we all have a deadline for making our feelings known to the Commission. To be sure, the fact that no deadline has heretofore been established hasn’t stopped folks from expressing their views: within the first month following release of the NPRM more than 400 comments had been filed. No, we didn’t read them all, but a spot check indicates that approximately all of them oppose giving a governmental green light to cell phone use in the air.
On the other hand, none of the comments we saw takes on the main issue the FCC has authority to decide: whether cell phones in the air will cause interference to cell service on the ground. If the answer is no, the FCC will have little choice but to drop its ban and let the airlines decide what kind of cabin environment they want in the air.
Still, it’s possible that the Commission’s proposal has some fans somewhere who will be moved to file, but from the response the NPRM has received so far, the boo-birds are likely to outnumber the cheerleaders by a whopping margin. But who knows? In any event, according to the Federal Register notice, comments must be filed by February 14, 2014; reply comments are due by March 17. If you’re inclined to chip in your two cents’ worth, just click on over to this link and submit in Docket No. 13-301. (You can also file separate comments pursuant to the hilariously-named Paperwork Reduction Act; those go to the FCC, but at a separate address listed in the Federal Regiater notice; they’re due by March 17, too.)
