Are We Prepared to be On-line in the Air?
By Anastacia Mott Austin
It would seem that the only place you will be able to go soon to escape the ever-present connectivity to the online world is a desert island. And who knows, maybe you can get satellite service there, too.
Because one of the last bastions of forced offline time, airline flights, may be changing soon.
It used to be that you could plan on spending several disconnected hours in a tiny, cramped seat, next to a large man with onion breath, barely able to move your elbows, begging the flight attendant to give you the whole can of ginger ale.
Ugh. But the point is, until now you were not expected to accomplish any networking tasks on your cell phone, no important emails could be sent?you were unreachable.
But those workaholic business-class travelers had to ruin it for the rest of us, by demanding that airlines provide Internet service. And the airlines have listened.
Many major airlines have announced over the last month that they will soon begin trials of high-speed Internet access during their flights. Both American Airlines and Southwest said they would start trial periods of Internet availability on flights later this year, and JetBlue has already begun offering limited online services during some of its flights.
Virgin Airlines and Alaska also announced their plans to start offering Internet access on their flights as well.
But those people who currently suffer withdrawal pangs when separated from their Blackberries and their email shouldn?t get too excited just yet. The time of successful high-speed Internet connectivity on all major airline flights is still some time away, say experts.
Henry Harteveldt, an airlines industry analyst who works for Forrester Research published a report recently on the topic. “It will probably be two years or so before we see the vast majority of aircraft in the U.S. with this,” said Harteveldt to reporters.
Why?
First of all, there is no universal system in place for delivering the service. The pioneer in developing in-flight online access was Boeing, and it began developing a system called Connexion in 2000 which equipped its large, two-aisle jumbo jets with Internet service. But the system was never bought by other airlines because it was extremely bulky ? weighing in at about 400 pounds ? and could not easily fit in the smaller, one-aisle airliners used by travelers in the continental United States.
Current major airlines are utilizing different means of supplying the service: some are using air-to-ground systems that employ towers across the country, others are relying on satellite services.
Wendy Campanella, a representative for Row 44, the satellite service which will provide Internet access for two major airlines, told writers at C/Net News.com that satellite was superior to air-to-ground because “it provides 30 megabits per second of capacity per aircraft, with an average expected throughput of 100 kilobits per second per user.” I have no idea what that means, but it sounds impressive.
Satellite also offers the ability to have more users online at one time, and will not drop connections while flying over water, an important consideration.
A representative for AirCell, the company providing air-to-ground tower service, argued that their connectivity is just as good over smaller bodies of water and the service is cheaper, which will translate to lower costs for the consumer.
Either way, it has become clear to airline management that Internet connection is something that passengers want, and they want it now.
Said Campanella of Row 44 to reporters, “The numbers we’ve seen are that on the order of 80 percent of business travelers and better than 50 percent of regular travelers would put Internet as the number one or number two enhancement for flights.”
Right. Because being able to send your co-worker an email right this instant is much more important that a few more inches of elbow room or actual, edible airline food, or not having your luggage lost.
And what happens if airlines start allowing cell phone service during flights, which might not be much further behind Internet access? If that happens, prepare yourself for a whole new world of hell. All you need is onion-breath man yakking in your ear for five hours about his market losses or the big game or his colonoscopy. It doesn?t matter, when that happens I?m ready to give Amtrak a boost.
In the meantime, prepare to be resigned that the time is coming soon when you will not be able to get away from it all on your way to getting away from it all.
