The Next Wave? Surfing the Web at 35,000 Feet

NEW YORK — For many busy people, an airliner is one of the last places with guaranteed down time, away from the tentacles of e-mail and requests from the office.

That's about to change.

Several international carriers next year will begin offering high-speed Internet access via satellite. For now, it's basically a trial run so the airlines can figure out how much people are willing to pay to get online with their own laptops at 35,000 feet.

This toe-dipping comes as several companies stand ready to upgrade airplanes with a range of improved communications systems, such as giving passengers the means to send and receive e-mail and instant messages at their seats.

Boeing Co. is set to debut its Connexion satellite broadband service Jan. 15 on Lufthansa flights from Frankfurt, Germany, to Washington-Dulles. Scandanavian Airlines System (SAS), British Airways and Japan Airlines are slated to try it next.

Lufthansa will offer the service free for three months; British Airways plans to charge about $30 per flight.

That price sounds about right to Rob Vollmer, 32, a principal in Crosby-Vollmer International Communications, a Washington-based public relations firm.

Vollmer, who has flown 140,000 miles this year, does so much work by e-mail that he sometimes feels compelled to surreptitiously check messages during flights with a wireless hand-held device, though it's prohibited.

"If I could do so legally for a fee, I'd jump at the opportunity," Vollmer said. "Going six to eight hours without the ability to send or receive e-mail is a form of torture," he said, offering proof: He once took an unnecessary flight from London to India because he missed an e-mail saying that a meeting had been postponed.

Connexion's service requires installing two antennas on the plane, one to transmit data to satellites and one to receive data. A server and routing system inside the plane relay signals to and from plug-in ports at the seats or wireless networking cards in passengers' laptops.

The service promises speeds comparable to cable modems, with downloads up to 1 megabit per second. Even if everyone on board logged on at once, Connexion spokesman Terrance Scott said, the data transfer rate would not be less than 56 kilobits per second, comparable to dial-up.

Connexion eventually could use voice-over-Internet technology to let passengers make phone calls safely, Scott said. Mobile phones are banned in flight out of fear they could disrupt navigational systems and wreak havoc with cellular networks on the ground.