Cellular data access in-flight

I have heard that cell phone calls don't work well while flying
because of hitting too many towers
at the same time. But what about Internet access from a Smartphone.
Does that work?
I am thinking satellite weather photo access.
(Not concerned about contest rules here.)

On Wednesday, May 15, 2013 7:31:58 PM UTC+2, soartech wrote:
I have heard that cell phone calls don't work well while flying

because of hitting too many towers

at the same time. But what about Internet access from a Smartphone.

Does that work?

In Germany, you have internet access in-flight even when you can't do voice calls. Not very reliable, but good enough for SkyLines live tracking via XCSoar (http://www.skylines-project.org/tracking/). A clubmate went to South Africa last winter, and he had reliable internet up to 6000m.

XCSoar can already load METAR/TAF during the flight, and we want to implement more live weather data, like map overlays.

Max Kellermann wrote:
On Wednesday, May 15, 2013 7:31:58 PM UTC+2, soartech wrote:
I have heard that cell phone calls don't work well while flying

because of hitting too many towers

at the same time. But what about Internet access from a Smartphone.

Does that work?

In Germany, you have internet access in-flight even when you can't do
voice calls. Not very reliable, but good enough for SkyLines live
tracking via XCSoar (http://www.skylines-project.org/tracking/). A
clubmate went to South Africa last winter, and he had reliable internet up to 6000m.

XCSoar can already load METAR/TAF during the flight, and we want to
implement more live weather data, like map overlays.

I've found that 3g works better in the air than 4g at least on my iPhone.
Never really used it in the glider, but I have used the internet, and even
received/made voice calls flying along in a power plane. Being more remote
helps bandwidth, as you are seen by fewer towers.

YMMV

Pete