the handoff management system maximizes the communications capacity available from terrestrial air - to - ground cellular networks , while also integrating communications capabilities from satellite air - to - ground cellular networks and terrestrial cellular communications networks . the communications capacity is maximized by dynamically allocating communications from the aircraft over multiple communications channels to multiple cells of the terrestrial air - to - ground cellular network , and to satellite air - to - ground cellular networks and terrestrial mobile networks . this approach effectively provides an increase in the call handling capacity available to any aircraft and permits a gradual transition of communications from one cell to the next cell , rather than requiring an abrupt handover of all traffic from the aircraft from one cell to the next cell .