The Thuraya thread is interesting, but I recently saw someone comment on another forum that 3G covreage was available across most of Europe except that UK at levels below FL050.
My experience in the past was that I could not get a useful signal even much lower, but that was always by turning on my phone while flying.
On Saturday I was flying and due to poor weather I never went above 2800ft. Before takeoff I left my phone on, and created a wifi hotspot. I left it don the front of the combing so that it had a good view outside, and connected my ipad to the hotspot.
I was quite surprised by two things.
I got none of the rt interference that I'd usually get if I left the phone on in my pocket. So the different location seemed to resolve that.
I was able to update the weather and even check email on my iPad as I few. Indeed the speed might not have been incredibly fast, but it was no slower than typical 3G on the ground.
There were some hills along my route with elevations of 1000-2500. I wasn't over these but along side, so that might have helped.
This was all in Ireland.
I'm curious what others have found in other countries, and if leaving your phone on from the start of the flight gets the same surprising results as I got?
dp
At 2.000-2.500 Feet, I also can check mails and weather with IPad or Iphone from time to time (sonetimes I must wait for 1-2 Minutes for update).
I get no GPRS/3G reception on my Nokia phone when flying, though I have never tried it very low down (say 1000ft) as the only time I am down there is very briefly.
SMS works well, up to about 2000ft.
Some years ago, over France, I was successfully using 9.6k dial-up data connections at FL080, with a Nokia 6310i, but that isn't GPRS/3G - though GPRS goes together with GSM which carries the 9.6k dial-up feature so that might work, but it's very slow.
It's thus possible, Dublinpilot, that you are actually getting GPRS connections rather than 3G or HSPA. The result, if the data arrives at all, is the same, the phone will show a barely noticeably different icon, but the data rate will be very low - c. 20kbits/sec.
I am no telecomms specialist but a lot will depend on how aggressively the client device is trying to establish connections. If it really "goes for it" then it could grab a connection for a few seconds, but really it will struggle to even do the DHCP bit in those few seconds. I think the trend in consumer devices is to not be too aggressive (evident in e.g. abandoning an outgoing SMS if it cannot be sent in 3 retries; one of the first things one hacks on any phone that can be hacked) though IOS devices have tended to go the other way which results in a good, ahem, "user experience" if the user is highly mobile in an environment rich in wifi or 3G networks (and his/her "online habits" are mostly bitty ones which do not require session continuity as with e.g. online banking) but it breaks a lot of fixed equipment.
So results are probably highly client device dependent, and probably also network dependent because the French towers must have been radiating upwards quite a bit, which the UK ones don't do.
I would expect things to work better in or near mountainous regions, where GSM reception is often provided for emergency purposes. I had a perfectly working phone on top of Mt Kinabalu (14k) and dare say it would be fine on top of Ben Nevis (6k) even though that is in the "backward UK" 
For a fee, one could write an app for a phone to e.g. get tafs/metars, which maximally aggressively attempts to establish connections, preferably to a fixed-IP server so that no DNS lookup is needed.
One factor is population density. Cell phones perform cell broadcasts to find all available stations and choose the best one. They are designed to get a few responses to their broadcasts, not hundreds like they do when they're in an airplane.
I've had successful 3G connections in a number of countries outside UK. Most notably in NZ, where email and web browsing seemed to be available in most places up to 8000' (the ceiling of my 152!). I've also had successful connections in the US west up to 10,000' in the vicinity of Big Bear, CA and in most other places where there's cellphone signal. Also in the S of France. But not in Germany around Hannover at least where it seems to be blocked above about 1000 - 2000', UK style.
The ability to download current weather, airfield plates and much else into SD or Foreflight while in the air is magical: just like GPS, it will become one of those things that we can't imagine being without.
Hi there guys, I know this is a forum for European GA guys but thought I'd share my experiences in South Africa with 3G.
I have just gotten my night rating so I am very eager to fly as much as possible and rely on my iPad as a backup Nav device. To the North of JHB I get full 3G up to about 75nm away at 8000ft. Once I fly into the countryside I almost always get either a 3G signal or full EDGE.
Not bad at all.
On a KLM flight from Buenos Aires to Amsterdam I got unlimited WIFI access for 13,95€ on a 14hr flight.
The speed was quite OK. I could check email, surf the web, etc without any problems.
This makes me wonder:
- Given that sattelite data is very expensive; How can KLM offer Internet access for 200+ POB at such a rate?
- Which satellite network are they using?
I am no specialist in this area but I thought that the only player with the geographical coverage and the bandwidth is Immarsat.
Certainly they are the choice for upmarket yachts (where wifi is de rigueur) and for King Air type clients. The installations on these start at about 100k.
My guess is that your airliner operator paid quite a bit more.
It is also believed that if there is a post-MH370 mandating of regular position reporting, Immarsat will pick up most of that business, though of course the bandwidth per aircraft can be very low.
sorry, but I can’t resist to tell you that I had it already in 2003 before I retired:
With system integration provided by Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa operated the world’s first scheduled flight with broadband Internet access on 15 January 2003. From May 2004 until the end of 2006, when Lufthansa’s then-partner Connexion by Boeing discontinued the service, wireless broadband Internet enjoyed increasing popularity. The technology also proved very reliable. By the end of 2006, some 69 of Lufthansa’s long-range aircraft were equipped with FlyNet®, making the Lufthansa fleet the largest Internet-enabled long-haul fleet in the world, with about 30,000 users per month.
http://www.lufthansa-technik.com/de/flynet
In 2010 they restarted with I think Panasonic as new partner:
http://www.lufthansagroup.com/en/press/news-releases/singleview/archive/2010/november/30/article/1826.html
I don’t want to advertise – so I must say almost every big airline has got this service by now
I remember being on a transatlantic flight going to Rome in 2009 and sending an email to my travel partner in the back of the same plane, then receiving his reply. At the time it seemed like absolute magic.
Today another friend and I took a 1 hr Citabria flight around hills and mountains, rarely over 1000 ft agl, looking at old dirt airstrips that are still on the chart but rarely used. We were one behind the other on this flight too. Even more magical to me
