Etiquette

Mobile telephone use in etiquette is an important matter of social discourtesy, phones ringing during funerals, weddings, in toilets, cinemas, and plays. Users often speak loudly, leading to book shops, libraries, bathrooms, cinemas, doctors' offices, and houses of worship prohibiting their uses, and, in some places, the installation of signal-jamming equipment to prevent their use (though in many countries, including the U.S., such equipment is currently illegal). Some new buildings, such as auditoriums, have installed wire mesh in the walls (making it a Faraday cage), which prevents signal penetration without violating signal jamming laws.

Trains, particularly those involving long-distance services, often offer a "quiet car" where phone use is prohibited, much like the designated non-smoking car in the past. However many users tend to ignore this as it is rarely enforced, especially if the other cars are crowded and they have no choice but to go in the "quiet car". Mobile phone use on aircraft is also prohibited and many airlines claim in their in-plane announcements that this prohibition is due to possible interference with aircraft radio communications. Shut-off mobile phones do not interfere with aircraft avionics. The concern about cell phones is partially based on the crash of Crossair Flight 498.

As of 2007, several airlines are experimenting with base station and antenna systems installed to the airplane, allowing low power, short-range connection of any phones aboard to remain connected to the aircraft's base station.[citation needed] Thus, they would not attempt connection to the ground base stations as during take off and landing.[citation needed] Simultaneously, airlines may offer phone services to their traveling passengers either as full voice and data services, or initially only as SMS text messaging and similar services. Qantas, the Australian airline, is the first airline to run a test airplane in this configuration in the Autumn of 2007.[citation needed] Emirates has announced plans to allow limited mobile phone usage on some flights.[citation needed]

In any case, there are inconsistencies between practices allowed by different airlines and even on the same airline in different countries. For example, Northwest Airlines may allow the use of mobile phones immediately after landing on a domestic flight within the US, whereas they may state "not until the doors are open" on an international flight arriving in the Netherlands. In April 2007 the US Federal Communications Commission officially grounded the idea of allowing passengers to use phones during a flight.[16]

In a similar vein, signs are put up in many countries, such as Canada, The U.K. and the U.S., petrol stations prohibiting the use of mobile phones, due to possible safety issues.[citation needed] Most schools in the United States have prohibited mobile phones in the classroom, due to the large number of class disruptions that result from their use, the potential for cheating via text messaging, and the possibility of photographing someone without consent.[citation needed] In the UK, possession of a mobile phone in an examination can result in immediate disqualification from that subject or from all that student's subjects.[17]

A working group, made up of Finnish telephone companies, public transport operators and communications authorities, have launched a campaign to remind mobile phone users of courtesy, especially when using mass transit – what to talk about on the phone, and how to. In particular, the campaign wants to impact loud mobile phone usage as well as calls regarding sensitive matters.[18]

Many US cities with subway transit systems underground are studying or have implemented cell phone reception in their underground tunnels for their riders. Boston, Massachusetts has investigated such usage in their tunnels, although there is a question of usage etiquette and also how to fairly award contracts to carriers.[19]

The issue of mobile communication and etiquette has also become an issue of academic interest. The rapid adoption of the device has resulted in the intrusion of telephony into situations where this was previously not known. This has exposed the implicit rules of courtesy and opened them to reevaluation. http://www.richardling.com/papers/1997_One_can_talk_about_common_manners.pdf