Flying Net access still has glitches By Michelle Kessler, USA TODAY 30,000 FEET ABOVE SAN FRANCISCO =97 I surfed the Internet from my airline=20 seat, and I loved it. But I needed a lot of help. Last week, I sent e-mail,= =20 checked eBay auctions, and even wrote this story while flying in a Boeing=20 test plane equipped with Internet access for passengers. At least eight=20 major airlines are testing in-flight Internet or e-mail systems, which they= =20 say will be widely available in 2004.When it worked, it was great. It let=20 bored passengers get a lot of work done. Eventually, it could be used to=20 show movies or make cheap in-flight phone calls. But the service was hard=20 to set up and use, and was easily derailed by computer glitches. More=20 problems could arise as it and others are geared up for widespread use.=20 That could deter frequent fliers such as Melbourne, Fla., engineer Richard= =20 Dutchik, who has been eagerly waiting for in-flight Web access but says he= =20 won't use it if it's too cumbersome or expensive. Airlines are trying at=20 least three systems. Lufthansa, British Airways, Japan Airlines and=20 Scandinavian Airlines System are testing the Boeing service, called=20 Connexion. It lets passengers with plugged-in or wirelessly enabled laptops= =20 surf the entire Internet. United Airlines and Continental Airlines are=20 joining with Verizon to offer limited Internet access to laptops plugged in= =20 to seatback phones. Cathay Pacific Airways and Virgin Atlantic are testing= =20 onboard e-mail and messaging services from Seattle start-up Tenzing. But=20 each system faces challenges such as: Slow speeds. The wireless technology Boeing uses has the potential to be as= =20 zippy as a DSL line or cable modem. But on last week's flight, speeds were= =20 closer to dial-up Internet service. Since everybody on a plane shares the=20 same connection, that means "somebody kicks on streaming video, and service= =20 slows to a crawl," says Gartner analyst William Clark. Verizon updates most of the Web pages it offers every 15 minutes. Tenzing=20 only offers e-mail and messaging, not Web access. Newer technology could=20 fix the problem, but won't be ready for some time. Technical glitches. Passengers on board the test flight couldn't log on for= =20 half an hour due to computer problems. Once the system was up, it took a=20 technician about 10 minutes of changing my laptop's settings to get it to=20 recognize the plane's network. That caused problems once I returned to my= =20 office. The changes kept my laptop from connecting to the Web the way it=20 usually does. It took hours =97 and the help of a tech-savvy friend =97 to= fix=20 it. Similar glitches have also been reported with other systems. The=20 companies say most bugs will be fixed by next year. High cost. While many frequent fliers would like Web access as a free perk,= =20 Boeing says they are likely to pay $25 to $35 for a single leg of an=20 international flight. Domestic flights would be less. Verizon's service=20 costs $6 a flight. But passengers can only access a few Web sites chosen by= =20 Verizon. Tenzing charges about $1 for each e-mail sent or received. Chris=20 Kozup, an analyst for the research firm Meta Group, says $7 to $12 for one= =20 day of unlimited usage is what most passengers will be willing to pay. Disconnected systems. Most public Internet access systems are not linked to= =20 one another. That means a business traveler moving through an airport might= =20 have to log on separately to different systems in the terminal, a=20 frequent-flier lounge, a Starbucks and on the plane. Each system requires a= =20 new set-up and fee. Boeing and other Internet providers say they're working= =20 on a solution. Still, travelers such as Patrick O'Toole say they're=20 excited about on-board Internet. Cheap, easy-to-use access "would be=20 terrific!" says the Minneapolis consultant. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.boogsie.com/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************