When the FCC and the Federal Aviation Administration recently began looking into the possibility of repealing the ban against using cellular phones during commercial airline flights, there was an incredible outcry against the move. That reaction kind of surprised me, because I thought that if there is one thing you could say about contemporary society, it loves the sound of its own voice. I thought a large percentage of the population would rejoice at the possibility that they could now call their bosses, wives, mothers, sisters and brothers ad nauseam during cross-country flights to have loud, one-sided conversations.

However, an IDC survey released last month suggested that only 11% of people surveyed were in favor of removing the in-flight ban on cell phone usage, and that many more were in favor of in-flight data usage, such as text-messaging. Though passengers' desire not to be annoyed by other passengers is at the heart of that reaction, the nation's cellular carriers should look at it differently — as a data marketing opportunity. As of this writing, Cingular Wireless was the only carrier that had recognized the opportunity, coming out with a statement that it too was not in favor of in-flight voice calls, but had nothing at all against in-flight data usage. The mobile data era has begun, but carriers are still looking for the right killer apps and captive data users. In-flight data usage offers them both.