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

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

Opinion and Analysis

Interestingly, several reports online about the issue have raised the possibility of being able to use Skype in-flight, with some people decrying allowing fellow passengers the ability to yabber on loudly about their holiday in a noisy plane environment, further disrupting fellow passengers in what is already quite a noisy environment.

This forgets that Boeing’s Connexion service allowed passengers to use Skype for voice calls, which users reported worked just fine, alongside downloads, World of Warcraft and pretty much anything you could do with a regular connection on the ground – it certainly is a shame that it was shut down.

It also forgets that in-ear noise cancelling headsets with noise-reduction microphones that let you speak quietly yet still be heard are also available, which will allow you to hear the person you’re speaking to much more clearly, while they will be able to hear you clearly through your microphone despite the sound of a plane’s engines and everything else.

It simply needs the right technology, and a bit of courtesy from people, for voice calls on planes to be possible without disrupting all those around you, although I for one wouldn’t care if VoIP was enabled or not if I had access to the rest of the Internet

Both Alaska and American airlines have said no to VoIP calls for now, while JetBlue’s service only does email and messaging anyway. Virgin haven’t ruled VoIP out, but once again, it’s early days.

At least there are more companies involved in the in-flight broadband game this time around, with cheaper prices sure to make the decision for passengers who own a laptop much easier, although for economy passengers the issues of the passenger in front of you reclining their seat and the lack of power points to charge laptops in most economy seats will factor in their decision, especially on longer flights, problems that generally don’t affect passengers in business or better class.

For passengers in economy, handheld computing devices such as the iPhone, iPod Touch, Windows Mobile, Nokia and other brands of Wi-Fi enabled smartphone, along with other cool devices like the Asus Eee PC, will be the easiest and most comfortable to use, and usually offer longer battery life than traditional laptops anyway, although passengers that do this frequently and land with a flat smartphone will have to buy themselves a second battery or portable charging device.

Were such a service available on all flights, I’d be a customer every time I flew, and while I’ve avoided Facebook or MySpace addiction, you can certainly imagine that there are many more laptop-toting Net users today using a wider array of online services than ever before
who’d happily choose a bit of web surfing if available in between whatever movies or TV shows were also available on the in-flight entertainment system, especially at only $10 extra.

So, in-flight Internet is coming back at last. Yes! It's been too long already, with plenty of people waiting for Wi-Fi in-flight broadband roll out to the rest of the world so all travellers can benefit and stay so we can connected as we want to be, whether on a short flight or even on the longest multi-day journeys, where an Internet connection would transform the experience of air travel for the better for many.