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Long gone are the days when we must entertain ourselves in flight with nothing but a paperback book and a casual conversation with our neighboring passengers. Late last year JetBlue announced on-board Wi-Fi on equipped A320 aircraft. Techies and business travelers everywhere celebrated, until it was announced that service would be limited to Yahoo! Mail and Messenger and Blackberries. Now Jetblue has expanded its free “BetaBlue” service to incorporate other email services and even online shopping.

A press release from the airline explains, “The expanded services will provide customers with a simple yet extensive search and discover option from Amazon.com, as well as a more diverse email and messaging platform open to both Microsoft Exchange corporate email accounts and leading webmail providers such as Gmail, AOL Mail, Hotmail and Windows Live Mail.” Customers will only have access to these approved sites, though undoubtedly full internet service is on the table for future releases. Jetblue has a reputation as an innovator in their market, being one of the first airlines to provide each passenger with individual TV and movie programming. The expansion of their internet service has helped them to maintain this image in an increasingly competitive and cutthroat market.

While it seems as though Wi-Fi on aircraft is a long-time coming, an Engadget article from the initial launch of BetaBlue explains the difficulties of providing a signal. “Quite a bit of technical and administrative work went into getting this service off the ground, from snatching up and deploying a rare slice of 800MHz ground-to-air spectrum to effectively managing cell tower connections while traveling over 500mph to developing clients that would maximize the precious bandwidth being shared by so many mobile gadget lovers.” Jetblue partnered with airline entertainment provider LiveTV (which is owned by JetBlue), and the network is powered by a platform called Kiteline. Kiteline’s CEO Nate Quigley said in a press release, “At LiveTV, we think basic air-to-ground connectivity services should be offered free to all customers - and our Kiteline connectivity platform is designed to make that possible.”

In addition to sending and receiving emails, chatting with friends, and shopping on Amazon, passengers’ friends and family on the ground will be able to track the status of their flight on Yahoo! Maps. The announcement is especially good news for business travelers, who rely on airline flights as a time to catch up on work. Now travelers will have the option of replying to their backlog of emails or messaging the office with instructions or questions.

Other airlines have also been testing in-flight wireless, including Southwest, United, Continental, and American. While it would be nice to have full internet access in the air, there would no doubt be problems with the system beyond technical difficulties. Passengers would likely abuse the service to access inappropriate content, ignoring the fact that airplanes are not private places. However, as the Web 2.0 generation begins flying for business travel, they will demand the constant connectivity they have on the ground. While Jetblue may be the first airline to make on-board wireless a reality, by no means will they be the last.

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

By Haley January Eckels