TIP: Public phones were around for a long time, usually in phone booths that protect the callers from noise and passersby from the details of the calls. Keep the same principle in mind when using your cell phone. Try to construct a virtual phone booth around yourself for the duration of the conversation.

That trick isn’t always possible, however, and when it isn’t, you should be exceedingly sparing in your cell-phone use. Cell phones have no place in restaurants; at the theater, movies, or symphony; in churches or classrooms; or in meetings. You are in these places to do something other than talk on the phone. Whenever you go into one of these settings, have the courtesy to turn your wireless phone off or on silent.

REMEMBER: The more available you make yourself, the more available everyone expects you to be. People will begin to get upset if you are not instantly and constantly available!  Ask yourself, do you really want to be connected 24/7/365, and is it absolutely necessary?

WARNING! Think before you speak! A number of recent studies have concluded that motorists who use cell phones while driving are four times as likely to get into accidents. Most everyone agrees that handheld cell phones while driving can constitute a hazardous distraction. Also, the theory that hand-free sets are any safer has been challenged by the findings of a number of studies. Researchers at the University of Utah, published in the summer 2006 issue of Human Factors, the quarterly journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, conclude that talking on a cell phone while driving is as dangerous as driving drunk, even if the phone is a hands-free model.

If you inadvertently forgot to turn the phone off and it starts to ring, hasten to quiet it, even if that means turning it off without answering it, and apologize to those around you, as appropriate and convenient. Sometimes just silencing your phone is all that is necessary.

FAUX PAS: Never answer a cell phone or begin a cell-phone conversation while you’re in a bathroom. The potential for embarrassment is high.

Excerpt from: Business Etiquette for Dummies by Sue Fox