I don't understand the arguments at all -- carrying a cell phone does NOT make you, or what you are doing, "safer" in any way!  A cell phone cannot prevent you from falling though the ice of a lake or river, or from hitting a hidden stump, or from colliding with a moose.  ALL it can do is help with the aftereffects.  I fear that this will only give a false sense of "security' to the e-gadget obsessed participants, and diminish the spirit of the race.  How pathetic.