Mobile phones were, for different reasons, very much in the news over the past few weeks.

On 7 April, the European Union opened the way for air travellers to use mobile phones to talk, text or send emails on planes flying across Europe’s airspace. Airlines will be able to offer onboard service for cell phones that use the European GSM technology later this year. After years of having to switch off mobile phones during flights for security reasons, it is now apparent that technology has improved so much that soon we can all remain in contact even while flying, if we so wish.

This, in a way, shows that the more time passes, the more we are unable to live without mobile phones. Many surveys today show that people list the mobile phone as the first object that they cannot do without. As a reason for this, most people say mobile phones give them a sense of security and enable them to feel closer to others even if they are alone.

Taking only statistics for Malta, today there are 371,178 mobile connections, equivalent to some 91 per cent of the whole population. There are countries, such as Italy, where there are more mobile phones than people, and where many have decided to eliminate landlines from their homes and rely solely on mobile phones, simply because the service is cheaper.

But mobile phones have their downside too. Who has not been embarrassed at least once, with the phone going off at the wrong time – a funeral perhaps, a business meeting or during an intimate moment. In fact, it has become a practice that announcements are made for mobile phones to be switched off, or at least put on silent mode, at the theatre, the cinema and other places where silence should reign.

Mobile phones can also be a nuisance to others too. Other surveys in fact show that many people think that one of the most annoying things in life is someone else’s mobile phone ringing a few metres away.

And it is with this in mind that – and here comes the second piece of news – the Austrian city of Graz has suggested that public transport users should keep their mobile phones on silent mode during their travelling. Users will not be fined if their mobile rings while in transit, as this is purely on a voluntary basis, but at the same time commuters will be showing respect to others if they do not cause a disturbance with their mobile phone.

The decision taken in Austria’s second largest city follows polls that show that two-thirds of Austrians believe that mobile phones should be under control in public places.

Perhaps the European Union should keep this in mind when it gives licences to airlines to operate mobile phone services – the airlines should ensure that people using their mobile phones during flights keep them on silent mode all throughout the journey.

Graz was taking the cue from France’s national railway, which offers phone-free zones in high-speed trains. The idea has not worked everywhere – in Stockholm, for example, the transport authority did away with phone-free zones just 10 months after launching the system because too many passengers wanted to use the travelling time to catch up on work and other important calls.

And this is where modern technology is taking us. We cannot live without mobile phones, yet mobile phones can be of a nuisance to others. Therefore a compromise needs to be found.

This begs the question: Will there come a time when aircraft will have to be divided into two sections too – one for those who want to use the phone while travelling, and one for others who can stay with their mobile phone switched off for a few hours and prefer to take a nap rather than being disturbed by the constant cacophony of mobile phones ringing in an enclosed space?