Ryan Kim, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, April 14, 2008

Wireless Internet is literally taking off. We're

talking cruising at 35,000 feet above the Earth.

A handful of airlines are poised to offer wireless Internet access inside their planes, giving passengers

the ability to answer e-mails, conduct work, social network and otherwise entertain themselves. That

Internet black hole known as the airplane cabin will soon be no more.

JetBlue in December began a pilot test of in-flight wireless service that offers users access to Yahoo

e-mail and chat and allows Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerry devices to get e-mail. In the coming months,

American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Virgin America will begin trials of more

robust Wi-Fi services that offer full broadband speeds to laptops, media players and gaming devices.

Regular Wi-Fi service could begin on many of the airlines by the end of this year.

Many of the test flights will involve planes flying to and from the Bay Area.

The services use a variety of technologies, but they offer the same basic premise: provide people with

the Internet access they enjoy at home, in the office or at hotspots.

"More of what we do on the ground these days is Internet-connected. It's the nexus of what we do, so to

offer that same capability in-flight is very valuable," said Doug Backelin, manager of in-flight

communications and technology for American Airlines.

In-flight wireless will not include cell phone service, which the Federal Communications Commission

and the Federal Aviation Administration have blocked so far. Most of the airlines also have vowed to

disable Skype and other Internet phone services accessible through laptops and Wi-Fi phones. The

European Commission, however, has approved in-flight cell phone service, which is being tested out by

carriers such as Air France, Emirates and Ryanair.

The cost of the domestic Wi-Fi service is still being worked out. Aircell, which is providing the wireless

service for American and Virgin America, is looking at charging $12.95 for flights longer than three

hours and less for shorter trips. Row 44, which supplies the technology for Alaska Airlines and

Southwest, is working with its carrier partners to set pricing, which hasn't been determined. JetBlue

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uses technology from its subsidiary LiveTV and is offering wireless access free on its one test airplane,

which flies cross-country.

The carriers hope to provide connection speeds comparable to DSL service, around 1 to 2 Mbps for

each user. The technology providers they're relying on are achieving wireless in the skies in two very

different ways.

Aircell installs antennas on the bottom of the plane that communicate with its own network of 92 cell

towers on the ground. Inside the plane, there will be at least two Wi-Fi access points that provide a

signal to travelers. The company said the setup can deliver 3 Mbps to the plane, which is compressed

and allows travelers to share the equivalent of a 15 Mbps connection.

LiveTV offers a similar setup but with a narrower slice of radio spectrum than Aircell. As such, it can't

provide the same bandwidth, which limits its offerings to e-mail and online chatting. The company

plans to roll out satellite Internet service beginning in 2009.

Row 44 delivers Internet access via satellites, which beam data back and forth using a flat antenna on

top of airplanes. The service, which uses three satellites that are shared by Hughes Networks Systems,

is able to provide 30 Mbps to the plane and can operate over the ocean for international flights.

Analysts predict the service will be embraced by passengers, especially business travelers. In a recent

Forrester Research survey, 55 percent of travelers on flights of four hours or more said they would be

interested in paying for in-flight wireless access. Airline executives are expecting Wi-Fi in the skies to

become a standard feature aboard all planes.

"Wi-Fi is going to be a vanilla amenity," said Charles Ogilvie, Virgin America's director of in-flight

entertainment and partnerships. "Once you put a product or feature out there and it really starts to

resonate with users, it becomes the standard and the bare minimum."

Wi-Fi lovers will have some limits to deal with when surfing in the sky. Skype and other Internet phone

services will be disabled to ensure peace and quiet in the cabin. Users trying to download large files also

will have their traffic throttled to guarantee other users aren't adversely affected.

"If you're streaming video, you might be ... at the back of the line or the loading may be slower than

you'd like to see," said Jack Blumenstein, CEO of Aircell. "But if you're on a flight with not a lot of

activity, you'll find you can do what you want."

The use of wireless on board raises a number of new questions for airlines. Flight attendants likely will

have to field technical questions for the first time. They'll also have to police against passengers viewing

inappropriate content online.

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"The airlines have all cut back already, so there's less staffing," said Sara Nelson, a spokeswoman for

the Association for Flight Attendants. "This is just going to increase our role and make it more

difficult."

Steve Jarvis, vice president of marketing, sales and customer experience for Alaska Airlines, admits

offering wireless may add to their flight attendants' workload. But he said the system is being designed

to work with minimal support.

Creating the infrastructure for broadband in the skies is opening up new opportunities for airlines.

Row 44 is looking at providing wireless users with a form of Internet protocol television. Virgin

American is using the new connectivity to provide Internet access to its seatback entertainment

systems. Virgin is also tapping game developers to create networked games that can be played by

passengers in the same plane and by travelers on different flights.

"The basis for all of this is the understanding that we have a captive audience at 35,000 feet who want

more than just the experience of watching the seat in front of them," Virgin's Ogilvie said. "There are

so many possibilities on the application side that the Internet will enable now."

-- Alaska Airlines: Testing wireless Internet access this summer

-- American Airlines: Testing service on 15 planes by mid-year

-- Continental: Testing limited wireless next year

-- JetBlue: Currently testing one plane offering limited Yahoo e-mail, IM chat and BlackBerry e-mail

service

-- Southwest Airlines: Testing service on four planes in late summer

-- Virgin America: Testing service late this year

Source: Chronicle research