飞机上可打电话,有人欢喜有人愁

You know there is trouble when Tony Robbins, the tirelessly upbeat Mr. Motivation, is sulking.

当你看到托尼·罗宾斯(Tony Robbins)这个不知疲倦、永远乐观的励志大师感到郁闷，你就知道的确出问题了。

But there he was on Twitter, lamenting the prospect of yet another torment in the hell of modern air travel: people talking on cellphones. The Federal Communications Commission is considering letting passengers use their phones while flying, and Mr. Robbins — and a lot of other people — are not happy.

可是罗宾斯恰恰就在Twitter上，嗟叹着“现代航空地狱”可能出现的另一种磨人酷刑：乘客打电话。联邦通信委员会（Federal Communications Commission，简称FCC）正在考虑允许乘客在飞机飞行时打电话。罗宾斯和其他许多人都很不高兴。

"Do we really need this!?" Mr. Robbins, the motivational speaker, wrote in response to the news.

罗宾斯这位励志演说家回应这则新闻时写道，“我们真的需要这个吗？”

Others were more blunt. My inbox was flooded with angry messages. "I already hate my fellow passengers — this would only make it worse," one reader wrote. A petition was created on the White House website to rally the quiet-cabin camp.

其他人的口气更加直白，我的收件箱里也收到了大量愤怒的言论。一位读者写道，“我本来就讨厌同机的乘客，这样一来恐怕要更恨他们了。”人们还在白宫网站上发起了请愿，试图凝聚保持客舱宁静的阵营。

The reaction was the opposite of the mostly celebratory, Twitter-tape parade that marched through social media last month when the Federal Aviation Administration finally relented and agreed to let passengers read on their devices, surf the web and check emails during takeoff and landing. For many, the takeaway seems to be this: Let the guy squeezed next to me read quietly on a Kindle? No problem. Let him drone away in my ear? No way.

这种反应与联邦航空管理局（Federal Aviation Administration，简称FAA）上个月终于放松要求，允许乘客在飞机起飞和降落时在设备上阅读、上网、查收电子邮件时，大多数人都表示庆祝、在社交媒体上奔走相告的反应大相径庭。对很多人来说，故事的重点似乎是：使劲塞进我旁边座位的那个家伙想在Kindle上静静读书？没问题。让他在我耳边嘟嘟囔囔？没门。

So why is the F.C.C. proposing something many people don't seem to want? The agency is, in fact, trying to give us what we want: access to data while flying. One byproduct, however, is that people would, or could, also be able to make calls. But it may be difficult for people to get what many want — access to cellular data on flights — without getting what many don't want — the occasional Chatty Cathy in 21B.

那么FCC为什么要提出一项许多人似乎并不喜欢的措施呢？实际上这个部门是在试图给我们想要的东西：飞行时能够使用数据。然而这种做法的副产品就是，人们也同样能够打电话。但要想让人们得到他们想要的（在飞机上使用蜂窝数据），同时避免他们不想要的（偶尔出现在21B座位上的大嘴婆）可能很难。

It isn't a done deal. The F.C.C. has not issued a formal ruling, and commission officials declined to comment for this article. But an earlier statement from the F.C.C.'s chairman, Tom Wheeler, echoed the concerns that people like Mr. Robbins are voicing.

这件事还没有敲定。FCC并没有下达正式的决定，委员会的官员也拒绝为这篇文章接受采访。不过FCC主席汤姆·惠勒(Tom Wheeler)在较早前发布的声明中，回应了像罗宾斯这样的人所表达的顾虑。

"We understand that many passengers would prefer that voice calls not be made on airplanes. I feel that way myself," Mr. Wheeler said. "Ultimately, if the F.C.C. adopts the proposal in the coming months, it will be airlines' decisions, in consultation with their customers, as to whether to permit voice calls while airborne."

“我们理解许多乘客希望在飞机上不要打电话。我本人也是这样想的，”惠勒说。“如果FCC在未来几个月采纳这个提议，最终还是要由航空公司在咨询消费者之后，决定是否允许在飞行过程中拨打电话。”

The F.C.C. provided me with documents and filings that help explain how this issue has evolved. The rules about using cellphones on planes date to the early '90s, when phones were the size of milk cartons. Those devices, coupled with the weak electrical insulation in aircrafts, created crackly interference for pilots, so they were quickly banned. In 2007, the F.C.C. opened an internal review about whether to lift the rules, but safety concerns were still an issue, and the proposal was shelved.

FCC向我提供了一些文档和提交的文件，有助于解释这个议题的转化。涉及在飞机上使用手机的规章始于上世纪90年代初期，当时的手机还和砖头一样大。那些设备，再加上飞机上薄弱的电绝缘技术，对飞行员产生了噪音干扰，因此手机被迅速禁用。2007年，FCC对是否取消这些规章开展了内部审议，但安全方面的担忧仍然是一个问题，于是提议被搁置了。

Now, as the F.A.A.'s revision of its rules on using devices during takeoff and landing illustrate, today's gadgets and planes are made for each other. In many respects, the F.C.C. is looking out for consumers, trying to give people the opportunity to connect to data on a cellphone rather than pay for costly — and often laboriously slow — Wi-Fi available on airplanes.

现在，就像FAA修订其规章，允许在飞机起降时使用电子设备所显示的，今天的电子设备和飞机经过设计可以互相兼容。在很多方面，FCC是在保护消费者权益，让人们有机会在手机上连接数据，而不是使用飞机上提供的昂贵且缓慢的Wi-Fi。

As is often the case with technology, the United States is trailing other parts of the world on this issue. The European Union began enabling airlines to permit cellphone and data use in 2008. As will be the case in the United States if the rules change, the European Union left it to airlines to choose which components of a cell service to make active during flights.

就像科技领域经常发生的那样，在这个问题上美国也落后于世界其他国家。欧盟在2008年就开始批准航空公司让乘客在飞机上使用手机和移动数据。就像规章改变后美国的情形一样，欧盟让航空公司选择在飞行过程中允许移动电话服务的哪些部分。

In Europe, Virgin Atlantic allows unlimited data connections, but it lets only six people talk on a cellphone at once. Some Lufthansa flights allow data connections through a cellphone, but no phone calls. Emirates lets an unlimited number of passengers talk on their phones — though few apparently do. How is it working so far? A study by the F.A.A. in 2012 found no reports "of air rage or flight attendant interference related to passengers using cellphones on aircraft" in other countries.

在欧洲，维珍大西洋(Virgin Atlantic)允许无限的数据连接，但只允许六个人同时打电话。汉莎航空(Lufthansa)的一些航班允许通过手机连接数据，但不允许打电话。阿联酋航空(Emirates)允许数量不限的乘客打电话，不过似乎很少人会打。这些规定的实际影响如何？FAA在2012年开展的一项研究发现，在那些国家没有出现“与乘客在飞机上使用电话相关的愤怒事件，也没有空乘实施干预”的报告。

The change here, if it comes, will not happen overnight. There's a long process to go through first.

即使美国的规章变动能够得到批准，变化也不会一夜之间到来，首先还需要经过很长的过程。

"Once the F.C.C. issues its opinion, it would be up to the F.A.A., the airlines, or both, to decide whether to roll out services," said Angela Giancarlo, a lawyer at Mayer Brown and a former F.C.C. official. Then, as in Europe, the airlines would be able to decide whether to allow data services, voice services, neither or both. Most important, pilots and stewards would have a "kill switch," so if someone is talking too much, his or her phone could be shut off from the cockpit.

孖士打律师行(Mayer Brown)律师、前FCC官员安吉拉·吉安卡洛(Angela Giancarlo)表示，“FCC发布意见之后，就会由FAA或航空公司，或是双方来决定是否推出服务。”之后就像在欧洲一样，航空公司还可以决定允许数据服务还是语音服务，两者都不允许还是两者都允许。最重要的是，飞行员和乘务员手里有“终极开关”，如果有人打电话打太多，飞行员可以在驾驶舱里屏蔽他的手机。

"There is no quiet car at 30,000 feet," Senator Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, wrote in an email. "Staying connected and entertained by checking email and playing a game on your phone is one thing, but loud, intrusive phone calls would strain the social compact we all enter into when we board a plane."

马萨诸塞州民主党参议员，参议院商业、科学及运输委员会(Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee)成员爱德华·J·马基(Edward J. Markey)在一封电子邮件中写道，“在3万英尺的高空可没有单独的‘宁静车厢'。在手机上查邮件、玩游戏，跟人保持联络或者进行娱乐是一回事儿，可是大声打电话干扰别人，却会对我们登上飞机后共同进入的社会空间构成干扰。”

So what happens next? On Dec. 12, the F.C.C. proposal will be presented to its commissioners. If approved, it will then be put online for a public comment. That's when everyone — airlines and passengers alike — can voice their opinions.

下一步会发生什么？12月12日，FCC的提议就会提交给委员们讨论。如果得到批准，就会在网上征求公众意见。到时候所有人都可以表达观点，包括航空公司和乘客。

But, travelers, think carefully. Say no to cellphone use, and you lose that data connection on your iPad and smartphone at 30,000 feet. And that is what many of you have been asking for all along. You might have to sit next to Chatty Cathy. But at least you will be able to tweet about it.

但是请各位乘客认真考虑。不允许使用手机，就会在3万英尺的高空失去iPad和智能手机上的数据连接。这可是你们当中许多人一直都想要的。或许你旁边就坐着一个大嘴婆，但至少能在Twitter上抱怨一下。