Wi-Fi Service Coming to International Flights

With our connected obsessed culture many people need to be reminded to shut off their phones prior to leaving the gate, and are the types pressing the on button before the wheels touch the runway. This isn’t so much a complaint, since I'm often one of those people.

Taxiing is time to check email, send IMs, and basically catch up with news, market numbers, and other current events. The truth is that many of us who travel for business can be obsessive about staying connected, and the time up in the air is about the only time we’re really cut off from the world.

Of course airlines have long provide onboard phones so passengers can make (extremely expensive) phone calls, and in the last few years there have been new options to provide Internet access on some domestic flights.

This week CNN.com reported that Wi-Fi is coming to international flights on United Airlines, and other airlines will likely follow suit. Domestic in-flight Wi-Fi service is provided by Gogo, which uses land-based stations. For international travel, however, the service will have to be satellite-based, and thus much more expensive.

Currently, Southwest Airlines and others have offered domestic Wi-Fi service for prices ranging from $5.95 for flights up to 90 minutes to $12.95 for flights last more than three hours. For internatinal flights however, Wi-Fi service could cost up to $15 an hour. Given the cost, the question is whether we will actually see demand taking off. According to a recent CNN story on the topic, “most airlines have hinted at single-digits percentage usage on aircraft.”

It isn’t the usage that I personally think is a concern but rather how one uses it. As I’ve written about recently Wi-Fi isn’t all that secure to begin with, and factoring in that it is being used on a plane should be a red flag to many users. But no doubt it won’t.

This is yet another case where many will likely see it as a convenience, one too great not to take advantage of – to send that email, to download that report, to stay connected with the office. As I noted in a post from a few years ago titled, “” people will have “private” conversations on their phone loud enough that most of the cabin can hear, or will bang away on a document with the words “confidential” at the time.

So Wi-Fi on planes just brings this sort of careless to the next level. That doesn’t mean I’m saying we should shun it, after all I’m very focused on small business technology. However, before logging on during a transcontinental flight, first ask, “do I really need to pay $15 an hour to check email,” and then next ask, “should I be concerned about security with what I’m doing?” If you can’t convince yourself this is necessary and worth the money, maybe enjoy the movie instead.