do cell phones work on air plains?

Answer 1

I am assuming that you are asking about airplanes and not arid plains (dry flat land area).

Cell phones will work on air planes. When you are on the ground, you are often only a few miles from a cell tower that can receive and relay your cell phone signal. But there may be land objects blocking your signal. When you are flying in an airplane, although you may be miles away from cell towers, you do have a direct line of sight where there are no objects in between to interfere. But that can be a problem. Your signal might be picked up by more than one cell tower at a time and that can make communication difficult. Or because of the shielding of the aircraft metal, your signal might be too weak to reach a cell tower.

But as far as I know, it is against air line regulations to use cell phones on an airplane. Airplanes have mulitple sensors, receivers and transmitters onboard. Your cell phone is also a transmitter. Whenever the signal carrier from one transmitter mixes with the signal carrier from another transmitter, intermodulation occurs causing unwanted signals to appear on different frequencies. These unwanted signals can cause interference with the airplanes onboard electronic equipment.
Onboard receivers can be prevented from receiving the correct signals. And onboard sensors can produce false readings.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Yes.

That said, you are not allowed to use them on commercial flights as they are banned by airline regulations and the FAA, due to the possibility that they might interfere with some flight instruments.

You can use your cell phone on a small private plane, but it's usually too loud in the cabin to communicate by phone.

I flew a pipeline patrol Cessna once that had a cell phone connected into the radio headset, so you could talk more easily in the noisy conditions. It was used mainly for phoning in observations to the company base. You still have to pay attention to other radio transmissions and about 1000 other things in the course of a flight, so yapping on your cell phone isn't really a good idea in this context either.

One other consideration is that a cell phone aloft has the potential to "step on" a much larger number of towers (cells) than a terrestrial one, and this can increase congestion on the cellular network. So the airlines aren't the only ones that want you to turn off your phone!

Answer 4

There is a remote chance that anything transmitting device on an airplane will interfere with the communications and navigation gear. I wouldn't want to take the risk.

With that said, if you are within range of a cell tower, then the cell phone should work. Most commercial airlines fly around 35,000 feet (just under 7 miles). Also, at that distance and speed (600'ish mph), you would be switching towers quickly.

Answer 5

Most plains are flat, so the cell signal will go far. The air above the plain will have some effect, due to thermal characteristics, moisture content, and obstructions. But the phones in Spain work mainly on the plain.

Answer 6

The FAA claims that they will interfere with navigation and has banned them. No real tests have been run but a stewardess on one of the 9/11 plain called her airline from her cell phone and provided crucial info that identified the hijackers and the extent of the terrorist plot before her plane was crashed into the World Trade Center.

Answer 7

yes - but as your altitude gets higher your angle from the tower to the plane puts you outside the towers ideal link geometry. Typically a tower has about 5 levels of receivers each level divided into 120 degree coverage angle (almost parallel to the ground, slightly down toward the ground). so the higher you go the more likely that the receivers cant look up the high or that the distance to the best parallel tower is too far.
but yeah - you can place a call most likely, youre just not allowed too since your sitting on a vehicle full of fuel that could remotely ignite as your tranmission power intersects the various electronic and structural components of the plane.

Answer 8

yes they do but you are not suppose to use them I guess the interfere with the air plane transmissions.. During 911 there were over 1000 phone calls on cel phones from those 4 air planes....

Answer 9

convinced, carry your cellular telephone and the charger. Your MTI will keep it locked up and also you'd be able to apply it to call your spouse and children on Sundays. you in a lot of cases receives a 15 minute telephone call yet from time to time your flight will screw up something and your MTI will in easy words enable you communicate for 10 minutes. (and believe me, your call will be timed) They initially were meant to grant patio breaks once per week, yet they replaced that with letting the trainees make a telephone call.

Answer 10

yes they do but you are not suppose to use them I think because of 9/11