In-flight Internet coming to US skies again - at last

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 08 December 2007 07:49

Opinion and Analysis

Boeing’s Connexion in-flight broadband service was so good people were even able to use Skype for voice calls, but as the service was too expensive to operate it was shut down in mid 2006. Now, a form of in-flight Internet is coming back to US skies in December 07, with real web access finally coming to more US airlines in 2008.
The New York Times has reported that the Internet, or at least a slice of it, is coming to JetBlue Airways on Tuesday the 11th of December, with a free service on one Airbus A320 initially that connects to base stations on the ground giving passengers access to mail and instant messaging only via in-flight Wi-Fi – with some serious caveats.

First, any laptop computer with Wi-Fi can connect, but due to a partnership with Yahoo, only users of Yahoo Mail or Yahoo Messenger, or those who specially create accounts with those two Yahoo services, will be able to able to send and receive email to and from anyone, but only instant message friends, family and colleagues on the ground using the Yahoo Messenger service, or presumably one that is compatible with it.

Second, the only handheld devices compatible with the service are two Blackberry models, the 8820 and Curve 8320, although as time goes on surely both issues will be expanded to allow use by any Wi-Fi equipped device, such as an iPhone, iPod Touch, Windows Mobile smartphone, Nokia smartphone and plenty of others.

Journalists participating in a test flight encountered problems as the JetBlue Airbus connection with ground towers proved flaky at times, with the connection changes from one tower to the next needing a handover process, which can result in the equivalent of a ‘dropped call’ presumably if you are in the middle of sending or receiving an email, or a message, meaning you’ll need to wait a few moments or more until the connection is re-established so you can try again.

Still, it’s early days yet, with a JetBlue representative remarking that ‘the bugs will be worked out’ and that the important thing was to get out there and let people start using the service and seeing what happens.

Virgin American and American Airlines are hoping to have a Wi-Fi broadband service available to passengers sometime in 2008, provided by AirCell, a company which already successfully offers in-flight Internet technology for installation on private business jets.

Yet another solution is being offered by satellite Internet provider ‘Row 44’ and is set to be installed in an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737, in a service that covers not only 48 US states, Alaska and Hawaii, but also Canada and Mexico, in a sign that at least one airline will cover more than just the US.

Virgin, American and Alaska Airlines are predicted to charge around US $10 per flight, and depending on the distance travelled, the price could be a little higher.

In addition, reports says that Alaska Airlines is not only planning on giving customers in—flight broadband, but are also investigating its use in conjunction with the in-flight entertainment systems, and both cabin crew and flight operations, meaning a networked plane could be tracked in-flight, cockpit recordings could happen back at HQ and transmitted over the network, engineers could monitor individual planes in flight and more.

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