USA — As the Airline Passengers Bill of Rights flounders, commuters must increasingly figure out ways to keep themselves engaged and entertained during long flights – and long waits on the tarmac. Although a number of airlines have announced that they plan to introduce internet access into their cabins in the near future, not all will be providing full access to its bountiful content options. Both American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, for instance, plan to lock out Skype users from chattering during flights, with Virgin America considering a similar move, in addition to download limits and parental controls for minors getting online via its seatback consoles, both in order to avoid “yapping away or playing on a boom box,” according to an Associated Press article that hyped concerns about noise and potentially inappropriate content. Neither American nor Alaska currently plan to restrict passengers’ ‘net access, instead trusting their dedication to the “decency and good sense and normal behavior” of users, as the head of Aircell, which is in charge of wiring the planes, explains.
With Australia embracing internet censorship within its borders, the fact it will create “an objectionable list” of banned sites containing sex or violence comes as no surprise to the Web savvy. Panasonic Avionics Corp., which is providing the airlines’ high-speed access, notes that Skye calls from the PC may well be blocked, although those via Wi-Fi handsets will likely not be affected, due to their lower bandwidth needs. Incoming calls and annoying ring tones may not be allowed or may be restricted to certain times, however.
Leave it to the French to be laid-back, with Air France insisting that its OnAir cell phone system will only limit behavior if complaints are received. JetBlue Airways, which is currently testing a free email and instant message service on one of its airlines, has not revealed what its filtering policies will be.
Most services seem likely to be priced at $10 per flight, which a recent survey conducted by Forrester Research uncovered was a cost 26-percent of polled leisure travelers agreed they’d be willing to pay for a two-to-four-hour flight. That number rises to 45-percent for flights lasting more than four hours.
Alas for those stuck waiting for their plane to actually take off, service will not be effective on the ground during takeoff or landing. Instead, connectivity will go live once the planes reach their cruising altitudes.
Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Forrester Research, tells the New York Times that the future is very much wired. “In a few years time, if you get on a flight that doesn’t have internet access, it will be like walking into a hotel room that doesn’t have TV.”
Internet access in the air has been promised by airlines for years, with Boeing offering a moribund system that was adopted by only a few international carriers. Things may be changing now that JetBlue has taken the first, tentative steps toward offering access.
For now, access remains limited and, according to early reports, slow. Nonetheless, carriers appear dedicated to the concept, with Nate Quigley of JetBlue subsidiary LiveTV assuring customers that “We’ll find the bugs and eventually get them worked out.” Currently LiveTV’s in-flight internet access is only functional over the continental United States and uses a series of cell phone sites operating within an FCC licensed spectrum previously reserved for seat-back phones.
Although some, including the AP article writer, worry that airborne internet access could mean that innocent children would find themselves suddenly faced with row after row of pornographic materials, more rational and tech aware voices point out that it doesn’t take an internet connection for a laptop to contain sexy materials – and plenty of passengers already talk non-stop during flights, including children.
