A lot has changed since those regs were written. Ever notice how they mention specific devices? You can't use a phone but an electric shaver is ok. When I turn on my electric shaver at home it makes the TV fuzzy. Go figure.

I've been told that phones aren't allowed for a couple reason. I haven't had them confirmed. One was that the older analog phones ran on a freq. close enough to cause interference with the ILS. The second reason was that the towers used for cell phones can only handle X amount of operations per second. When in an aircraft and using a phone your phone hits more than one tower. That increases the amount of operations each tower is doing. It also made it hard to be billed by companies where roaming charges applied everywhere. It wasn't uncommon to drive 15 miles and all the sudden be roaming. Now of course these aren't issues but with the FAA it seems that once something is on paper it's pretty much impossible to get rid of it.