WiFi while in flight? Maybe soon...

from Forbes.com

http://www.forbes.com/personaltech/2004/02/06/cx_ah_0206tentech.html

NEW YORK - There's only so much a business traveler can accomplish with a notebook computer that is not connected to the Internet.

Airlines like JetBlue (nasdaq: JBLU - news - people ) can bring you in-flight satellite TV service, but aircraft manufacturer Boeing (nyse: BA - news - people ) is trying to figure how to bring in-flight Internet access via satellite.

Some business travelers see their travel time as a gift; others see it as an obstacle to productivity. A good deal of the design attributes of many notebook PCs from vendors like IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ), Gateway (nyse: GTW - news - people ) and Dell (nasdaq: DELL - news - people ), as well as Intel's (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) Centrino chip platform, aim to maximize the hours of use out of a notebook computer while on a long flight.

Beginning in April, a unit of Boeing called Connexion by Boeing will launch a service that brings broadband Internet access aboard certain flights with airlines like Lufthansa, Japan Airlines, British Airways (nyse: BAB - news - people ) and others.

By leasing bandwidth capacity on existing satellites and ground stations in the U.S., Switzerland, Russia and Japan, the service hopes to have network coverage available for flights over most of the U.S. and Canada, the North Atlantic, most of Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Russia, India, China, Japan and most of Southeast Asia. Coverage for Trans-Pacific flights, Australia and routes between South America and South Africa are planned for the future, says Connexion by Boeing President Scott Carson, a former chief financial officer of Boeing's Commercial Airplanes unit.

Carson says the Connexion by Boeing concern exists as an entrepreneurial unit within Boeing itself that had hopes of corralling U.S. carriers like Delta Air Lines (nyse: DAL - news - people ) and United Airlines into adopting its service at the end of 2001. Those plans were on track until the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Those carriers, suddenly faced with the need to ensure their survival, walked away. Connexion By Boeing nearly collapsed in the months that followed, but a live, in-flight video transmission from the group's demonstration plane during a Boeing investors meeting bought Carson some time to keep the business alive and land commitments from other carriers.

For $25 per flight, Carson says, you'll be able to bring your own Wi-Fi enabled Windows-based PC, Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) Macintosh or any Wi-Fi ready personal digital assistant and connect to the Web. Some airlines may also offer connections via Ethernet cables.

The service will offer up to 20 megabits per second of downstream bandwidth, and tests have shown it can support as many as 120 users at a time. Upstream capacity for sending e-mail and requests for Web pages will be about 1 MB per second.

But beyond simply offering passengers connectivity, he says airlines are interested in putting the Internet connection to work for other uses. "Say a passenger misses their connection. They can book a new reservation and print a new boarding pass on board," he says.

It also opens up new possibilities for security; for example, remotely controlled Web cameras on board that law enforcement officials can control from the ground in the event of a hijack attempt. Or medical monitoring data, so that doctors on the ground can read a live electrocardiogram from the plane to determine if a passenger feeling sick is actually having a heart attack or bad heartburn, and save the airline the financial and logistical cost of diverting the flight if it's not necessary. It can also help in areas of baggage management and aircraft maintenance, he says, saving airlines costly time.

None of the original U.S.-based carriers have signed back on to add the service to their planes, but as the air travel market recovers, and as domestic and international business travel rebounds, it won't be long until they're interested again.