FCC OKs use of wireless Internet access on planes

Airlines can provide their passengers with access to high-speed wireless Internet connections while they fly, federal regulators decided Wednesday.


"If there is a theme for this meeting, it is that we want" new technologies "on the land, in the air, and on the sea" Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell said Wednesday as the commission considered new rules for airlines.


"We are pushing the frontiers in order to bring the information age to all corners of the world," he said.


The FCC also talked about whether to end the ban on using cell phones on planes, but did not vote on that.


David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, a passenger group, said the changes under consideration would "make business travelers more efficient and while away the time for a lot of other passengers. This is all the wave of the future here."


Currently, the only way passengers on domestic flights can communicate with something or someone on the ground is through phones usually built into the seat backs. The phone service isn't very popular: Time on them costs far more than time on conventional or cell phones -- about $3.99 a minute -- and the reception is often poor.


Of the three companies that initially offered that service on commercial jets, only Verizon Airfone remains.


It has phones on about 1,500 jets.


The FCC approved a measure to restructure how frequencies for such air-to-ground services are used and to allow the airlines to offer wireless high-speed Internet connections.


Left undecided was the issue of how many companies the FCC would allow, through an auction, to offer such services. Verizon Airfone maintains that letting one company handle the service would ensure the best quality, and that existing technology can't support two competitors.


Others, including Boeing Co. and AirCell, argue for two competitors to prevent one company from having a monopoly.


FCC officials said the auction would take place within a year.


Once plans are completed and planes are outfitted with the equipment, wireless high-speed Internet access might be found on commercial domestic flights by 2006, said Jack Blumenstein, chairman and chief executive office of AirCell, of Louisville, Colo.


The timeline on when air travelers would be able to start using cell phones in flight is murkier, in part because both the FCC and the Federal Aviation Administration ban the practice.

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