Why do you have to put your phone on airplane mode before take off?
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It’s an old law from FCC when cell phone towers were first created.
A single cellphone on the ground might be able to communicate with two or three towers at the most. A cellphone 36,000 ft in the air could communicate with hundreds.
This created extreme problems with the phone network, essentially shutting them down. I forget the technical term for it but it’s like when 200 routers say, ” yeah I know that computer. let me get in for you.” and it starts an endless loop.
As an RF communications engineer/repairs for the past 20 years, I feel confident in saying it doesn’t affect the airplane. My cell phone, at max only puts out 3 watts ( usually only 0.5ish watts ). This is very little compared to the multiple of 500 watt tower that they must take off of through fly above and then land back in.
There are also federal regulations that allocate certain frequency bands to certain groups. airplanes and cell phones don’t operate on the same frequencies.
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