Two articles in the Economist, 15 December 2007, discuss mobile phone usage on planes. The first, "Your call", notes that passengers are being asked to give their views on in-flight phone by those carriers that are introducing support for data use and voice calls. This is made possible by on-board base-stations that connect to satellites, allowing mobile phone usage even when flying over oceans. "Airlines are unsure what passengers will make of this. Surveys have found that many people are vehemently against the idea, but others say they would welcome the opportunity to text, access the internet or make calls. So airlines plan to test the market before deciding how and when to allow phones to be used in the air" (p. 78).
But a second article, "Getting the message, at last", shows how new technologies have created etiquette questions for a long time. The article describes an early example of spam (a dentist announcing their opening hours), send by telegraph in 1864. "Infuriated, some of the recipients of this unsolicited message wrote to the Times. 'I have never had any dealings with Messrs Gabriel,' thundered one of them, 'and beg to know by what right do they disturb me by a telegram which is simply the medium of advertisement?' The Times helpfully reprinted the offending telegram, providing its senders with further free publicity" (p. 17).
But a second article, "Getting the message, at last", shows how new technologies have created etiquette questions for a long time. The article describes an early example of spam (a dentist announcing their opening hours), send by telegraph in 1864. "Infuriated, some of the recipients of this unsolicited message wrote to the Times. 'I have never had any dealings with Messrs Gabriel,' thundered one of them, 'and beg to know by what right do they disturb me by a telegram which is simply the medium of advertisement?' The Times helpfully reprinted the offending telegram, providing its senders with further free publicity" (p. 17).
