High-speed Internet access coming soon at 35,000 feet NEW YORK (AP) =97 For many busy people, a long airplane flight is one of the= =20 last places in life with guaranteed down time, away from the tentacles of=20 e-mail and requests from the office. That's about to change. In 2003,=20 several international carriers will begin offering high-speed Internet=20 access via satellite. For now, it's basically a trial run so the airlines=20 can figure out how much people are willing to pay to get online with their= =20 own laptops at 35,000 feet. This toe-dipping comes as several companies=20 stand ready to supercharge airplanes with a range of communications=20 upgrades, such as giving passengers the means to send and receive e-mail=20 and instant messages from their seats. "It becomes a really strong=20 productivity tool that gives people their time back," said Terrance Scott,= =20 a spokesman for Connexion by Boeing, which is offering the satellite=20 broadband service. "It keeps you in touch with things at a time when you=20 haven't been able to do that." Connexion's service is expected to debut Jan. 15 on Lufthansa flights from= =20 Frankfurt, Germany, to Washington-Dulles. Scandanavian Airlines System=20 (SAS), British Airways and Japan Airlines will try it next. Lufthansa will= =20 offer the service for free for three months; British Airways plans to=20 charge about $30 per flight. That price sounds about right to Rob Vollmer,= =20 32, a principal in Crosby-Vollmer International Communications, a=20 Washington-based public-relations firm. Vollmer, who has flown 140,000=20 miles this year, does so much work by e-mail that he sometimes feels=20 compelled to surreptitiously check messages during flights with a wireless= =20 Palm device, though it's prohibited. "If I could do so legally for a fee,= =20 I'd jump at the opportunity," Vollmer said. "Going six to eight hours=20 without the ability to send or receive e-mail is a form of torture," he=20 said, offering proof: He once took an unnecessary flight from London to=20 India because he missed an e-mail that warned him a meeting had been=20 postponed. Connexion's service requires installing two antennas on the plane, one to=20 transmit data to satellites and one to receive data. A server and routing=20 system inside the plane relay signals to and from plug-in ports at the=20 seats or wireless networking cards in passengers' laptops. The service=20 promises speeds comparable to cable modems, with downloads up to 1 megabit= =20 per second. Even if everyone on board logged on at once, Scott said, the=20 data transfer rate would not be less than 56 kilobits per second,=20 comparable to dial-up. Connexion eventually could use voice-over-Internet= =20 technology to let passengers make phone calls safely, Scott said. Mobile=20 phones are banned in flight out of fear they can disrupt navigational=20 systems and wreak havoc with cellular networks on the ground. Boeing won't= =20 disclose the cost of installing Connexion. But it is considered far more=20 expensive than simpler systems for planes that store data on a server and=20 periodically connect with ground networks rather than maintaining a=20 constant feed via satellite. One such option, JetConnect, a Verizon=20 Communications system that already is available on some Continental and=20 United flights, uses the same network as Verizon's Airfones, those=20 expensive handsets on seat backs. For $5.99 per flight, travelers who hook their computers to JetConnect can= =20 play games, peruse certain Web pages that get updated every 15 minutes, and= =20 send and receive AOL, Yahoo and MSN instant messages. Verizon plans to add= =20 e-mail in mid-2003. Similarly, Tenzing Communications, which is backed by= =20 Boeing rival Airbus, can provide e-mail access and short text messaging.=20 Cathay Pacific, Varig and Virgin Atlantic are customers; Seattle-based=20 Tenzing expects to sign several more in 2003. Several airlines, notably=20 American, Delta and United, said in 2001 that they would buy Connexion's=20 service, but those plans evaporated after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks=20 when mere survivability became paramount for carriers. Now, some carriers are showing renewed interest in Internet services in=20 hopes they can generate incremental revenue, improve customer loyalty and=20 provide new perks to offer in first and business class, said Rob Brookler,= =20 spokesman for the World Airline Entertainment Association. Indeed, several= =20 frequent fliers seem eager to sign up. Avi Steinlauf, a vice president at= =20 Edmunds.com, an autos Web site, said he'd "easily pay up to $50 for=20 broadband access on a cross-country flight." Robert Brooker, head of=20 ICLUBcentral, a Cambridge, Mass.-based software company, said $20 an hour=20 "seems like the right price point." Still, that sentiment might not be widespread. Tenzing is testing real-time= =20 satellite Internet connections but expects the market to lie in corporate=20 jets rather than commercial aircraft, said Peter Lemme, Tenzing's chief=20 technical officer. Low-cost carrier JetBlue could offer Internet access=20 relatively easily by adapting equipment it already uses to show live cable= =20 TV on flights via satellite. But JetBlue isn't convinced the Web would be=20 heavily used. "People are much keener to watch TV Land than draft=20 proposals or write e-mails," JetBlue spokesman Gareth Edmondson-Jones said.= =20 "It's always been very politically correct to say, 'Oh, I do all this work= =20 on all the plane,' but is that out of boredom? Wouldn't you rather have a=20 beer and watch ESPN?" 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