said by expert007 :

If so, then isn't 3.0 per subscriber (which would really be the airplane) exceedingly optimistic??

Will be interesting to see how the handoffs between towers are handled.

Does anyone know if these are simply cell antennas mounted facing upward?

The technology being used for radio transmissions is a customized version of Qualcomm’s EV-DO Rev A technology. Blumenstein said that they can migrate to Rev B or LTE if and when those higher-speed technologies become available. The base stations for the system come from ZTE Corp., the Chinese telecom hardware vendor that is desperately trying to make a name for itself in the U.S. market. Aircell is using technology developed by Meru Networks to ensure that the on-board systems don’t run into capacity issues and all passengers can connect with the on-board 802.11 routers.

Aircell expects to deploy about 500 antennas, enough to cover the entire country and support as many as 250,000 broadband users.