Mile High Wi-Fi

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

Paul Nelson reportingSome see it as a blessing, while others see it as a curse. Airlines are testing out having an Internet connection on a plane so you can work while flying.

You're on a plane flying for business. You're bored and the in-flight movie is lame. You'd like to get some work done, but you can't communicate with your office. Oh, what you wouldn't give for a Wi-Fi signal on the plane. Some hard-working people at Salt Lake International say they'd love it.

Keith says, "I think it would be a good idea. [It would be an] opportunity to use the flight time to catch up on business."

"I think a lot of business trips would benefit from that," Liz says.

Jeff says, "You're stuck in a metal tube, and there's some down time. It would be nice to have some options like that."

Others might think, "That would mean my boss could reach me any time. (Sarcastically) Great."

Lee doesn't like the idea. "Personally, I think you need some down time," Lee says.

The one condition these people all agreed on was they didn't want to be bothered by the noise you could hear in other Wi-Fi hotspots. You know, noisy things like viral videos, downloaded music and people talking on their cell phones.

Nostalgia Coffee Shop Barista Joseph Vatsend says, "We've had to explain to customers that not only what they're talking about isn't all right, but they're being excessively loud about said conversation."

Vatsend says most of their customers are considerate to the people around them, but there are a few people who abuse the Wi-Fi and ruin it for the rest of us.

"My main frustration was with one particular customer that was using the instant messaging, and he had the sound on," says Vatsend.

Imagine hearing instant message chimes over and over again during a five-hour flight.

Wi-Fi system installed in some UTA buses

JetBlue has a signal it already is testing on one of its A-320 aircrafts, which it has named "BetaBlue."

JetBlue Corporate Communications Manager Alison Eshelman says, "We are surveying our customers who fly BetaBlue to find out what other services they'd like to see in the future, and from there we will develop a plan to roll it out fleet wide."

The signal comes from cell phone towers as the plane flies over them. Eshelman says they will not let people use the signal to make calls on a cell phone because their customers don't want that. For now, Eshelman can't say exactly where BetaBlue will be at any given time.

She says, "We like to call it a surprise and delight for some of our customers because there is really no way of being able to set the aircraft on a particular route."

Eshelman says customers seem to like it, even though only Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Blackberry e-mail and Blackberry Messenger services work on the plane, so far.