Maximum range for cellphone?

[wacki]

Just curious does anyone know the maxmimum height a cellphone can be used in a airplane? Say you were at 30K feet or even 50K feet. Could you make a cellphone call if a tower was directly below you?

Yes, I'm in a stupid convo but lets please stay on topic.

[billygrippo]

thats a good question. too bad its against federal law to do it /images/graemlins/frown.gif

im guessing it would vary a LOT based on the phone/service and location.

[guesswest]

Yes, think there's probably a whole load of factors going on there - phone, band, weather etc.

But I remember I forgot to turn my phone off and got a call (quickly killed with profuse apology) at cruising altitude once. Can't remember what kind of plane it was, but trans-atlantic flight so I'd guess 30k at least.

Edit: Better link here (http://community.discovery.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/9401967776/m/6811957228/r/5541936328)

[wacki]

guesswest,

thankyou

[TheProbst]

Family friend is a pilot. He says that using your cell phone doesnt mess with the in flight comm. at all. The real reason is that it messes with the towers because they have to shoot signals up or something like that.

[Anadrol 50]

A pilot told me something similar. He said that the same phone connects to a [censored] of towers and [censored] things up. I actually used my cell phone on a recent flight to get some email. I wanted to test it out because in all those 9/11 conspiracy videos they say that it is impossible to make a cell call in the air as they are trying to disprove the calls from the flight that crashed in PA.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
I actually used my cell phone on a recent flight to get some email.

[/ QUOTE ]

How high up were you?

[guesswest]

Think it might also be important what he means by check his email - whether that's gsm/gprs/3g etc.

I was pretty interested in this question when you originally posted it so my OCD dictated I read up on it. My conclusion is that it'd be virtually impossible to make a functional voice call in a jetliner at cruising altitude, anything above 8000 feet would be difficult, and it's not just the altitude it's the speed. Picking up enough of a signal to receive a text, for your phone to briefly ring: still unlikely, but not unimaginable.