Cell phones on airplains

Having been on a fair number of flights, I always though (or was lead to believe by the flight crew speech) that the reason you could not use cell phone on airplanes was due to worries about interference with the planes electronics/avionics. It appears the real reason is worries that your use of a cell phone on the plane will interfere with ground based cell phone use.

The agency had long opposed cellphones on planes because of potential interference with ground-based networks, until new tech solved the problem.

I am not quite sure if the ability to use a cell phone on a plane is a good thing or not. People in general are quite rude when on their phones in public. I dread being stuck on a 4 hour flight, sitting next to a loud talker on his or her cell phone...