When doing SAR missions we also take lots of pictures. These pictures are automatically transferred from the aircraft using an ice.net router on board. Ice use the old (and now unused for mobile phones) 450 MHz mobile band. The advantage with this band is it reaches everywhere, in the mountains, at sea, in the air. The speed is slower than modern 3g or 4g, but not bad at all with max speed of 9.3 Mbps (no problem in the air).
For travelling at sea, road or train, ice.net is unbeatable, and is used by boats and transportation and in desolate locations. It covers the whole of Scandinavia. The price is about 400 € per year for unlimited connection, but you can pay less if you use it less, or shorter time frames.
I’m going to install this in my Onex, so I have continuous wifi wherever I go. Similar services must be available other places as well, or maybe not? the NMT-450 was the first mobile band in Europe, and I’m not sure it covered anything but Scandinavia.
I wonder if one could make some sort of narrow beamwidth directional downward (or forward down) pointing antenna that could use the existing cell phone structure for data while in the air over populated terrain?
I’m sure this could be done. But you will probably need active guidance for the antenna head and the transmission power in the spot beam will exceed legal limits by far.
In the past I had the chance to witness some WiFi high gain antenna experiments. The results where phenomenal. You could see about any WiFi in a whole mountain valley from a location on the hill. But you need precise target tracking and it is illegal in most countries as you exceed permitted signal power.
So this is no solution for GA in flight Internet. Both the big active antenna on the aircraft belly and the legal issues rule out such a solution.
ice.net router
A great product but unfortunately that seems to be limited to parts of Scandinavia. For example in Germany there seems to be no real use of the 450MHz frequencies since analog mobil phones have been shut down. I suspect the technology is not well suited for densely populated areas as bandwith would be shared among too many users living too close together.
For example in Germany there seems to be no real use of the 450MHz frequencies since analog mobil phones have been shut down
I know. The mobile (old analog NMT-450 cellular phone network) was shut down for good here more than 10 years ago, after being unused since GSM came at full speed in the 90s. But the same net can be used for CDMA450 data transfer, and ice.net took over the whole network structure and established this mobile data network which is unsurpassed in coverage compared to higher frequency mobile network. It is limited in bandwith, but that is no problem for the intended usage (transportation and far away places where newer standards are not cost effective). For boats, cars and air, it is excellent, always connected wherever you are. You can even get a mini router to put in your pocket, or an USB adapter.
Ice has become very popular and is expanding and improving the coverage, against all odds 10 years ago.
In the past I had the chance to witness some WiFi high gain antenna experiments. The results where phenomenal. You could see about any WiFi in a whole mountain valley from a location on the hill. But you need precise target tracking and it is illegal in most countries as you exceed permitted signal power.
Yes – I used to use this, and still would if I was going to be sitting in a particular hotel for a while in which wifi could not be assured (which is true for most hotels I have stayed in)…
It worked superbly. It may not even be illegal, because the performance is achieved using legal power but with a directional antenna.
It comprises of a standard USB-WIFI adaptor, modified for a high power output, which is stuck to a small Yagi array antenna. The whole thing is about 30cm long and weighs almost nothing. To the laptop, it looks like a standard USB-WIFI adaptor and the driver comes on a CD. A laptop which struggles to pick up one wifi network using its internal wifi radio will now see dozens of networks, and some of them are very likely to be unsecured and usable. One just needs to be somewhat covert about using this device in public places, but it is not too directional and can be easily concealed in a shopping bag lying on a table, etc. Inside one’s house, it solves most issues with poor wifi signal propagation through multiple walls.
However, 2014, it probably doesn’t work as well as it used to because so many wifi routers come with a password from the shop. But you need to find only one that hasn’t got a password on it 
The slightly larger model is also very useful
It may not even be illegal, because the performance is achieved using legal power but with a directional antenna.
At least 2,4 GHz WiFi is limited to 100mW sending power EIRP (equivalent isotropically radiated power) Basically this means the radiation in the worst direction is not allowed to get stronger than what a standard omni directional antenna would radiate when fed with 100mW. This means using any high gain antenna for sending is illegal. As a side note if you use such antenna on both sides the gain on reception is legal and you can increase range.
But coming back to the original subject such an antenna is no solution for GA internet as it is illegal and technically impossible to target the antenna in flight.
