The European Union opened the door to a new age -- or should we say, a new rage -- of air travel last week, ending a ban on in-flight use of mobile phones. The lifting of the E.U.-imposed restriction means that individual airlines will be left to decide whether to offer cellphone service from the friendly skies, which could happen as early as later this year. 

U.S. airlines have no such choice. The Federal Communications Commission, which has regulatory authority over wireless communications, still bans cellphone communications during flight. A chief concern has been that wireless traffic coming from 30,000 feet might interfere with ground-based networks, though new technology appears to circumvent this problem. The other concern is safety in the air, where plane navigation and avionics systems might be disrupted by cell signals and the extra electrical emissions from passengers' iPhones and BlackBerries. The Federal Aviation Administration has its own ban on airline cellphone use for those reasons.

But the E.U. deemed those safety concerns negligible, and said airlines should be left to decide if and how to enable in-flight calling. If the European carriers safely make the switch, the FCC and FAA would face mounting pressure to ease restrictions in the U.S. Already, there's a suspicion that the ban has more to do with "keeping the peace" in flight than the safety of the technology.

Which raises an interesting question. What is the government's appropriate role in a case like this? As many as 70% of U.S. air travelers favor the ban on calls in flight. In contrast to trains, where passengers seeking tranquility can sit in cellphone-free "quiet cars," there's not much room for compromise in the sky. "No Talking" sections on planes would be about as effective as the "no smoking" cabins of years past. Would the FCC or FAA be in the right to continue the ban, even after the technology was proven safe?