Cell Phones on planes

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I guess I just wanted to ask a general question about cell phones one planes.
I don't know if T-mobile just has crappy sky coverage, but after about 15 to 20 seconds (give or take 10) off the ground in a plane, I loose service.
If we were flying at an extremely low altitude, then I get service, but thats only when landing or taking off. Does anyone even get service while they are in the air?
Also, I know planes use only the 850 MHz band...therefor T-mobile phones could and would not cause any interference, right?

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dumb. There was a mythbusters on this. The pointed out a lot of those things. One thing they found was that it def doesn't interfere with plane electronics. The wires in a plane are very high grade. They're extra shielded to prevent things from going wrong.

Originally Posted by tavenger5

dumb. There was a mythbusters on this. The pointed out a lot of those things. One thing they found was that it def doesn't interfere with plane electronics. The wires in a plane are very high grade. They're extra shielded to prevent things from going wrong.

I actually talked to a air force pilot that flew commercial planes for a while, and he said it was all garbage.
I think its established that cell phones wont interfere with air plane electronics.
However
Whose phone actually works in the air?

Originally Posted by Nwahs

Whose phone actually works in the air?

It's called a pico cell site. Basically, a mobile cell site that interfaces over satellite. Internal dome antennas would sit on the cabin's ceiling to receive/transmit within the plane, signal is processed by the cell site and broadcast through the network via satellite. Only thing that needs to be perfected is a satellite dish that automatically changes it's position to stay connected to the satellite in orbit (since a plane is obviously not stationary). Given today's technology, this should not be very hard.

It would give airlines a boost in revenue, that's for sure. Sell "airspace" to providers. Example, imagine American Airlines being "Sprint exclusive", United Airlines "communication in the sky brought to you by Verzion Wireless", etc. Telcos can even create a feature where you pay "x" amount of dollars to be allowed to use "sky space", or charge a small roaming fee or something.

It's a complete win-win situation for everyone, including the telcos, airlines, passengers, etc.

Originally Posted by _Abom_

It's called a pico cell site. Basically, a mobile cell site that interfaces over satellite. Internal dome antennas would sit on the cabin's ceiling to receive/transmit within the plane, signal is processed by the cell site and broadcast through the network via satellite. Only thing that needs to be perfected is a satellite dish that automatically changes it's position to stay connected to the satellite in orbit (since a plane is obviously not stationary). Given today's technology, this should not be very hard.

It would give airlines a boost in revenue, that's for sure. Sell "airspace" to providers. Example, imagine American Airlines being "Sprint exclusive", United Airlines "communication in the sky brought to you by Verzion Wireless", etc. Telcos can even create a feature where you pay "x" amount of dollars to be allowed to use "sky space", or charge a small roaming fee or something.

It's a complete win-win situation for everyone, including the telcos, airlines, passengers, etc.

That does seem like a really good idea, and it sounds like it could work, even though I know its more complicated then that.
However
So many people like sleeping on airplanes, myself included, that I would probably end up punching someone if they were on their phone the whole time...and I don't even have a temper. I think it would cause a lot of problems like that...unless they made a cell phone, and non-cell phone section of the plane...

Originally Posted by Nwahs

That does seem like a really good idea, and it sounds like it could work, even though I know its more complicated then that.
However
So many people like sleeping on airplanes, myself included, that I would probably end up punching someone if they were on their phone the whole time...and I don't even have a temper. I think it would cause a lot of problems like that...unless they made a cell phone, and non-cell phone section of the plane...

I dunno, I'd probably find cellular use in a fine dining restaurant more intrusive.

I think having the ability to use service on aircraft would a plus in tons of regards. Also, some planes already have sat phones built into them, so the technology of connecting to a low-earth orbiting satellite while moving isn't something that hasn't been developed yet, it would just need to be "adopted" for the cellular situation.

Sounds like a good idea, but it didn't fly...
Nobody used the inflight phone system:
Continental Airlines discontinued the service.

Originally Posted by camstuf

Sounds like a good idea, but it didn't fly...
Nobody used the inflight phone system:
Continental Airlines discontinued the service.

You mean Sat phones ?

Yeah, those phones in the back of the seat that you can pay for by swiping your card.

Originally Posted by Nwahs

Yeah, those phones in the back of the seat that you can pay for by swiping your card.

That's because they were $3 USD a minute

My thoughts, charge a flat fee of like $15 or something per 24 hours of in-flight roaming for cellular. Average 737 seats, say 120 passengers per flight ? Say half of them use their phones ? $900 per flight ? Let's just say a busy airport like LAX or JFK moves 50 flights a day (although I'm fairly certain it's way more than that). So $45,000 a day ? That's $16,425,000 a year.

I think there's a business case to made there.