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Poncho_au t1_j2vtorn wrote

Aren’t most airlines globally now allowing Bluetooth and WiFi inflight? They are in Australia.
I think the historic reasons for technology off inflight was a near entirely unfounded fear of interference.
The reasons for putting certain devices away during takeoff and landing is the risk of flying objects.
The reason airplane mode is still mandated on flights to my understanding is because of the likelihood that people will start taking calls and being even more annoying during flights.

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theslowcrap t1_j2xd1jv wrote

Would a cellular connection work well at cruise speed?

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Mikeyme1998 OP t1_j2xmmpr wrote

Not at all, in fact once you get above a few thousand feet above ground level, the cell towers simply wouldn't reach you. Contrary to what you might think, cell towers are very directional and don't propagate particularly well. That's why you don't get signal in valleys etc. Same goes for in the air, there's no point in pointing the dishes UP, so you have almost no signal at all unless it's some bounced waves off of mountains

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VertexBV t1_j2xdhgg wrote

I read somewhere there were concerns on the telco side about users switching too quickly from one cell to another, or reaching too many towers at the same time, but this was a long time ago.

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