=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2003/02/12/f= inancial1810EST0113.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, February 12, 2003 (AP) In-flight Internet service delivers new heights, old woes RACHEL KONRAD, AP Business Writer (02-12) 15:10 PST ABOARD A BOEING JETLINER (AP) -- When Boeing and Intel invited me to test a prototype of their in-flight Internet service, I was intrigued. Could I really instant-message friends and link to my company's computer from high above the Sierra Nevada mountains? The prospect was far more interesting than NBC reruns or mind-numbing movies. Lufthansa began offering free access Jan. 15 on some trans-Atlantic flights during a 90-day trial period. British Airways plans to launch a service Tuesday for as much as $35 per flight. Japan Airlines and Scandinavian Airlines System will offer access next year. The three U.S. airlines that used to be minority partners in Boeing's wireless subsidiary, Connexion by Boeing, scrapped their in-flight Internet plans amid a downturn in the domestic airline industry. But Boeing executives expect United, American and Delta to adopt the technology whenever the economy rebounds. I went on a media tour arranged by Chicago-based Boeing and Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel, joining more than three dozen other journalists, analysts and company executives. We planned to surf the Web from a 737 at 35,000 feet during a 90-minute flight from San Francisco to the snowcapped Sierra Nevadas and back. It's a special plane Boeing uses for testing its service. Connexion uses wireless radio chips from Intel and centers its service around WiFi, an increasingly popular technology that has made wireless Internet access available at conference centers, hotels, coffee shops and other places popular with the laptop crowd. The service runs through a server on the plane, and passengers' laptops must already have WiFi-enabled hardware and software. Outside our plane were two large antennas that sent signals to and from Littleton, Colo., via satellite. But providing in-flight Internet access isn't as easy as providing it at Starbucks Coffee. My initial enthusiasm for in-flight access was grounded by the same land-based hassles: mysterious server malfunctions, slow connections and error messages that made me fantasize about launching my laptop from 35,000 feet. Service was unavailable during takeoff and landing, when crew members required passengers to turn off all electronic devices -- just like on any commercial flight. Once we were allowed to turn on our laptops, though, we lost our signal for at least 15 minutes. Service resumed, but only for Web pages already stored on the plane's Connexion server. Then the server crashed, and I could get nothing more on my Web browser than the odious message, "The page cannot be displayed." When service resumed -- more than a half-hour later -- I fired off sever= al e-mails from my Yahoo account. Emboldened by responses from impressed friends and colleagues, I decided to try my employer's virtual private network, the digital tunnel for getting e-mail and other information behind corporate security firewalls. VPN access is critical to getting work done, so this would be a key determinant in whether I would pay for the service. My VPN access -- admittedly flaky on the ground -- didn't work at all in the air. "Remote host not responding," it told me repeatedly. I then noticed that both instant-messaging applications I had launched several minutes earlier -- Yahoo's and America Online's -- were not working. Both were attempting to connect, seemingly to no avail. A Boeing engineer explained that bigger applications might be slow to start. Everyone within a confined area shares the WiFi network, so if one or two people download digital movies or send high-resolution photos, all passengers suffer slower connection times. With about 40 people sharing a 128k connection, access seemed about as slow as a conventional telephone dial-up -- if not slower. Having enjoyed a high-speed line at home for two years, I was annoyed by the plodding pace in the air. But as my pessimism peaked, I received a smiley emoticon from my friend David, who was working from his home in San Francisco. Yahoo IM had finally connected, and it performed solidly, albeit a bit sluggishly. As we chatted, I glimpsed the potential of in-flight access: I could ale= rt friends that my flight would arrive early or late, arrange dinner reservations, update my boss on a project or simply pass the time chatting with the many IM junkies in my life. I'm willing to give Boeing and Intel the benefit of the doubt, presuming they'll work out the kinks. And I can definitely see in-flight access taking off -- particularly among business travelers with expense accounts. But until the service comes with a money-back guarantee, I'd refrain from forking over my own cash. Next time I have to watch a bad movie in coach, I'll be more appreciativ= e. =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 AP