This has probably been answered before, but damn if I get the search engine to work for me today:
If cellular phones cause interference with electronic equipment on airplanes, how can they have those Airfones in the seat backs that use the same technology? Is it a scam to make you use their phones at their outrageous rates? And if it’s a different technology, what is it?
Would a regular cell phone even work at 35,000 feet traveling at a few hundred MPH anyway? I’d think you’d be moving between cell sites so fast the reception would be total crap regardless.
Not precisely the same – specially chosen for compatibility, and shielded and tested for known side-effects.
And it drives the computers at the cell sites nuts.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
Cell phones work fine, at high altitudes- it’s the cell towers and software on the ground that complain. Normally the towers are arranged so that a cell phone can only be picked up by three towers or less, and they negotiate who handles the call. As you travel, you are handed off from tower to tower automatically. If you’re flying at 35,000 feet, though, the cell phone will be picked up by lots of towers, thus confusing the entire system. Someone in a recent thread had a more detailed explanation of this, but this is basically correct.
The in-flight phones on the plane are constructed so the transmit antenna isn’t pointed at sensitive electronic equipment, and all radiating circuits, wires, etc. are shielded. The transmit antenna is probably directional, pointed at the ground, whereas a cell phone antenna is omni-directional (i.e. broadcasts equally in all directions.
If you are determined to use a phone in the air, a satellite phone such as the Iridium phone is a better bet- they don’t have any issues with cell towers, etc. Of course there is still the (extremely) remote chance that you’ll interfere with the avionics in the plane …
Arjuna34
Arjuna34