Reply #10: The idea behind cellular telephones is the small area of the cell [View All]

[LastDemocratInSC]

Cellphones operate at insanely high frequencies - in the microwave region of the radio spectrum. Their range on the ground is limited, therefore, by line-of-sight rules. That's why there are so many cellphone towers - the areas of each cell are very small - on the ground.

Take a cell phone up in an airplane and a gazillion cellphone towers will try to interact with the cellphone and with enough phones in the air, that could lock up the entire system.

The existing airplane cellphone systems use widely spaced antennas that are shielded from signals on the ground - they pretty much point straight up and are aligned with the major airline routes around the country.

I think that a lot of work is going to be needed to enable our cellphone systems to tolerate phone signals that are picked up by thousands of towers over hundreds of miles from 30,000 feet.