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. ...