INFLIGHT WI-FI is coming for domestic flights:
United Airlines plans to announce today that it is the first domestic airline to receive approval from regulators to install wireless Internet networks on its planes.
United passengers will not be able to take advantage of the service just yet. The airline is still at least a year away from having its in-flight Wi-Fi service up and running. When it does, sometime in mid- to late 2006, passengers will be able to check e-mail, send instant messages and surf the Web at 30,000 feet.
I was begging for this years ago, so I’m glad to see it, er, taking off.
Nick Schulz emails with a possible security benefit:
Not sure if anyone has pointed this out yet or suggested it, but it seems to me if people had had working WiFi on flights before 9/11, the passengers on the second plane to hit the towers might have heard about what happened to the first plane sooner, provided instant message works on the flights, and might have been able to pull a Flight 93 on it, possibly saving lives. Maybe not, but if you’re logged on WiFi with IM access from moment go on a flight, you’d know immediately from friends watching TV at work, etc. . . . I remember on 9/11 I couldn’t communicate with Lauren my wife via cellphone, but WiFi worked and we were able to communicate that way (she was still in Lower Manhattan that day).
He also notes that terrorists might possibly coordinate via IM, too, but it seems to me that on balance this benefits the good guys. Terrorists can always just break the no-cellphone rule to coordinate; opening things up to everyone just levels the playing field.