Einstein
Temporal Engineer
You overlooked the fact that there were several cell nets in operation even in 2001 (i had a great small mobile cell phone, fitted with a small retractable antenna that worked for miles, back in 1994!!), i could even use it to listen into what people were saying in my lounge when i was working away.....All i had to do was to set my cell phone to standby, and switch off the volume, so no one could here me calling my cell phone when i was at work, sneeeeeky!!..
When the aircraft were travelling fast, they would have been picked up at the next nearest cell net station, they actually had more than one cell net station per city, and aircraft could communicate with all of them very easily and clearly, even flying at high speed..
However, i still believe that there was some sort of conspiracy going on!!..
Did you see the YouTube video where one of the TV networks did an actual test with three cellphone manufacturers just to see at what altitude reception was lost? None of the manufacturers came even close to transmitting to 30,000 feet altitude. I believe they had all dropped off by 2000 feet altitude.