Aircell Betting In-Flight Internet Will Fly

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Within the next year or two, every major U.S. airline will routinely make wireless Internet available to its domestic passengers, says the industry's leading wireless vendor.

Fran Phillips, senior vice president for airlines at Chicago-based Aircell, says the company's broadband system enabling airlines with Wi-Fi enabled devices such as laptops and smart phones to access the Internet, email accounts and instant messaging will be routinely available by 2010.

"We are in various stages of negotiation with most of the major carriers and talking to all of them," Phillips says.

American(AMR) said Wednesday that it will offer the service on its 15 Boeing 767-200 aircraft, which primarily serve routes from New York's Kennedy Airport to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami. Two weeks earlier, Delta(DAL) said it would install Aircell systems on its entire domestic fleet by next summer.

Meanwhile, JetBlue(JBLU) and Continental(CAL) plan to offer LiveTV's Kiteline, a competing service owned by JetBlue that offers email connectivity. And Southwest(LUV) is working with Westlake Village, Ca.-based Row 44 to offer satellite-based wireless service.

"It's going to be a carrier by carrier decision, but you can see clearly that onboard broadband access is the wave of the future," adds David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association. "This takes onboard communication to a new level."

Airlines aren't yet certain how much revenue onboard wireless will produce. But passengers on both American and Delta will pay the same $12.95 rates on flights longer than three hours. Delta has also announced a $9.95 rate on shorter flights. Pricing was set in conjunction with Aircell, which has revenue-sharing deals with both carriers. Terms were not disclosed. Virgin America, also an Aircell partner, says it will charge for the service but has not yet set a price.