Today, for the first time, I found that I could get phone coverage while flying in an airplane. It wasn’t for the entire flight, just for the few minutes that we were still in the air but getting ready to land.
Still, it was a startling experience. I never expect cell coverage to reach any significant altitude. When it does, it is kind of awesome.
I wonder whether anyone has ever mapped out how high cell coverage goes. It probably varies greatly by geography. The resulting 3D shape would make a really cool visual, wouldn’t it?
I’ve always wanted to visualize the smog of RF radiation we live in.
Unfortunately, the two methods for gathering the data are to either step an actual sensor through the space (I’ve seen this done for mapping interior Wifi coverage) or predict it using the complex math of radio transmission and propagation.
Some googling brought up these aerial visualizations:
https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20131229-cellular-network-visualization