By Matthew G. Nelson,
LAS VEGAS -- Possibly as early as late next year, airline passengers will be able to point, click, surf the Web, catch up on e-mail, or conduct business online, all while flying across the country.
Aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co., through its new business unit Connexion by Boeing, will provide passengers with T1-speed access to the Internet and corporate intranets on flights in North America and eventually Europe.
Passengers will connect their notebook PCs to Ethernet or LAN jacks at their seats.
A pair of 2-inch antennas on the fuselage communicates with a transponder in the Telstar 6 satellite.
Corporate network administrators will have the option of creating an account with Connexion to provide secure connections to a business network.
The service is expected to be installed in commercial airplanes late next year or early 2002.
The system is being tested in 12 military jets, 12 commercial aircraft, and the personal aircraft of Scott E. Carson, president of Connexion and a Boeing senior vice president.
The system received an enthusiastic response during a demonstration at Comdex Fall 2000.
"I'm forever having problems when I go to travel," said Roy Currence, staff engineer for Xerox Corp. (stock: XRX). "In the airport, I've only got a 15 percent chance of finding a phone to connect my modem to. It would be wonderful to have that access while I'm flying."
The system is awaiting full Federal Communications Commission approval, but that's expected at the end of this year.
Pricing has not been determined, but Carson insists that "it won't terrify you. It'll be like a cell phone call."
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