Apparatus and methods to provide communications to aerial platforms

A method for receiving broadband access at a drone, comprising:

• storing a plurality of position location data associated with a network of cell sites;
• steering a beam toward a specific cell site of the network of cell sites based at least on a drone position coordinate, and a specific position coordinate of the specific cell site as reflected in the data, the steered beam characterized by at least a frequency within an unlicensed frequency band;
• measuring a downlink signal quality measurement on a received signal from the specific cell site;
• and
• receiving an uplink signal quality measurements from the specific cell site.

A drone radio sub-system, comprising:

• a position location determination sub-system configured to determine a drone position coordinate;
• and
• a drone antenna sub-system configured to steer a directional radio frequency beam;
• wherein the drone radio sub-system is configured to:
• store data relating to a plurality of position locations associated with a network of cell sites;
• steer the directional radio frequency beam toward a specific cell site based at least on an evaluation of (i) the drone position coordinate, and (ii) a specific position coordinate of the specific cell site;
• measure a downlink signal quality measurement on one or more received signals from the specific cell site;
• and
• receive one or more uplink signal quality measurements from the specific cell site.