eli5 how come airplanes have wi-fi but we can’t get a phone signal?

Question

eli5 how come airplanes have wi-fi but we can’t get a phone signal?

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Answer 1

Phone signal connects to the nearest cellular tower. WiFi is max 150’. The airplane does come with phones, but they don’t use the terrestrial cellular network; they use satellites. Some airlines stick a cellular converter onboard so it becomes the local cell tower that then connects to satellite; this is tricky though due to cellular bands having some overlap with avionics equipment in some countries.