Patent ID: 8442519

Claim:
A system for providing wireless communication services to communication devices that are located in an aircraft that is operational in a selected coverage area, wherein at least one geostationary satellite communication system is operational in the selected coverage area and uses a plurality of earth stations, each of which transmit radio frequency signals in a narrow-shaped beam that is directed skyward, in a direction toward the equator of the earth, to a satellite at a first radio frequency and receive radio frequency signals from the satellite, at a second radio frequency, using the narrow-shaped beam that is directed skyward at the satellite, comprising: at least one ground station for creating a radio frequency coverage area that provides radio frequency links to aircraft that are operational in the radio frequency coverage area, comprising: a transmitter that generates a radio frequency signal at the second radio frequency for transmission to the aircraft; and an antenna that produces a broad-shaped beam of the radio frequency signal generated at the second radio frequency, which broad-shaped beam is directed skyward in a direction toward the equator of the earth and which substantially fails to radiate into any narrow-shaped beam of the earth stations of the geostationary satellite communication system.