Crackdown on cell phones on public transit ignites debate

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And aviation experts say the risk of in-flight cell phone use interfering with jetliner navigational equipment is minimized because the new systems won't connect in-flight phones directly to the ground. Instead, they'll use an onboard base station to link up to a satellite and then to ground networks.

But silencing chatterboxes isn't always easy.

Last May, Sweden's Stockholm Transport did away with "cell phone free zones" on subways, buses and commuter trains just 10 months after launching the spaces.

"It relied on people showing respect, but it didn't really work," spokesman Bjorn Holmberg said: Too many passengers wanted to use their commute to catch up on work calls, and some just felt safer with cell phones in hand.

In Graz, 120 miles south of Vienna, officials concede the new ban is purely voluntary, and say transit police won't be conducting inspections or handing out tickets.

Bus and streetcar commuters are still allowed to tap out cell phone text messages, or use their laptops to make wireless connections to the Internet.

Recent polls suggest two in three Austrians support the idea of getting cell phones under control in public places. Officials in Linz, the country's No. 3 city, are also considering transit restrictions, and some are even calling for a crackdown on personal cell phone use at the office.

"I don't really understand what all the fuss is about," said commuter Erich Matthes. "Who or what is so important that you can't stay off your cell phone for half an hour- Must one really be reachable everywhere at all times-"

Josef Kalina, a senior official with Austria's governing Social Democratic Party, dismissed the Graz ring tone ban as "a completely anachronistic idea."

"You really have to wonder what the politicians will think of next," he said. "How about a total ban on freedom of speech in the public transit system- Using the law to regulate communication between human beings should be rejected as absurd."

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