Fliers, don’t touch that cell phone dial

Passengers still can’t talk on cell phones on an airplane. But Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) wants to make sure it never happens.

DeFazio announced Tuesday he’s introducing a bill to ban phone conversations on airliners.

{mosads}“Our intention is to stop this before it starts,” said Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), chairman of the Aviation Subcommittee and a co-sponsor of the bill.

The Federal Aviation Administration isn’t lifting its ban on cell phone conversations. But DeFazio, who helped lead the fight to ban smoking on airplanes, said he’s looking ahead at technology that will allow people to use broadband Internet on airplanes. He figures people could adapt that to use Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VOIP) to make phone calls from airplanes.

If that happens, he foresees an annoying cacophony of one-sided conversations filling up what is one of society’s last cell phone-free zones.

To make his point, DeFazio tried a trick often used in movie theaters to remind people to turn off their cell phones. He planted six staffers in the audience of the House Radio-TV Gallery, each of whom whipped out a cell phone as the press conference began and started yapping.

“Um, I’m trying to have a press conference here,” a bemused DeFazio said, looking up from his statement with a grin.

Gradually, the din died down and BlackBerrys were returned safely to belt carriers. But one young staffer kept going.

“There’s a guy here who wants me to get off my cell phone, but it’s a free country,” he said. An older staffer nudged him from behind and he flipped his device closed.

“That was DeFazio’s idea,” Costello said. “But you can just imagine sitting there for five hours and having to listen to all this.”

DeFazio said he originally wanted to bring the six staffers onstage during the press conference to demonstrate the discomfort of being stuffed between chatting travelers. But gallery rules prevented it, so he put them in the audience.

DeFazio stressed that his bill would not ban text-messaging, e-mail or BlackBerrys. And airlines can keep the phones embedded in the backs of headrests that allow passengers to make calls for a steep fee.

Costello said he hasn’t scheduled hearings or a vote, but he hopes to move the bill quickly. DeFazio said he expects the Bush administration to resist, predicting they will say the market will work out any problems. Airlines, they said, have not yet begun to weigh in, but representatives of flight attendants support it.

And they have Republican support from the ranking Republican on Costello’s committee, Rep. John Duncan Jr. (Tenn.), who attended Tuesday’s news conference.

“There’s not much cell phone courtesy in this country these days,” Duncan said. “There’s a place for cell phones and there’s places cell phones shouldn’t be.”

The public, DeFazio said, is adamantly against airplanes full of cell phone callers. But he fears low-cost carriers will introduce it to reap extra fees. At that point, larger competitors will feel compelled to add it so as not to lose customers to the carriers that provide it.

“We want to step in before the airlines become addicted to the revenue,” DeFazio said. “The public doesn’t want to be subjected to this.”