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Hallelujah!
Today, Jet Blue began testing a plane equipped with a wireless network and Yahoo and Blackberry email. Says CNET:
Passengers won't be able to surf the full Web. But if they bring Wi-Fi-equipped laptops along, they can access lightweight versions of Yahoo e-mail and instant messaging services; BlackBerry owners who have Wi-Fi-enabled handsets (the BlackBerry 8820 and BlackBerry Curve 8320) will be able to access their personal and corporate e-mail. BlackBerry models that have only cellular connections rather than Wi-Fi won't be compatible--the Federal Communications Commission still has a ban on cellular service in-flight.
Not sure why the airlines would limit access in such an odd way, and I doubt that will last.
Pricing is a question, but $10 seems about right and hard to turn down.
If you don't want to get online mid-flight, know that the same spectrum used to offer Net access can also be used to deliver in-flight entertainment, including quite possibly live programming.
Not missing a football game in-air? Now *that's* an advance worth noting.
This is all in the early stages, even the airlines admit, but it's hard to see in-flight broadband access not taking off:
“I think 2008 is the year when we will finally start to see in-flight Internet access become available, but I suspect the rollout domestically will take place in a very measured way,” Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Forrester Research told News.com. But “in a few years time, if you get on a flight that doesn’t have Internet access, it will be like walking into a hotel room that doesn’t have TV.”
What do you think? Ready to go online on your next flight?
