Jim-
"I travel a lot too. I've been on many flights that had the in-flight phones with the credit card slots on them. They almost never got used."
And at $5/minute, IIRC, there was a reason for that.
"Even if the FCC allows the use of cell phones, the airlines will still have the ability to ban their use as a point of policy."
Ah, not quite. Under the Federal
Communications Act of 1934, the FCC has the sole power to regulate anything to do with
radio transmitters. Your cell phone is not a phone, it is a
radio, and if the FCC didn't give the airlines any discretion in the matter--they wouldn't have any. If the FCC doesn't say the use of a radio may be regulated, or regulated by some other body, then you can use it anyway you please. As a courtesy, they have allowed the airlines to determine the use of radio transmitters aboard aircraft. They don't have to extend that courtesy, and if they don't, TFB, the airlines have no say in the matter.
Rude passengers,
kids kicking the seatback, loudmouths on phones...all one and the same.
Of course, you can always do like Miss Emily Latella (late of Saturday Night Live) used to do. Loudmouth gets on the phone, you stick your hands on your ears and go "LA LA LA LA LA" until the
noise stops.