Internet on planes

Last time I surfed the Web from a plane was 1995 when Rohit Khare and I were comming back from the Dallas IETF. MCI had (possibly inadvisedly) presented every attendee with a calling card that allowed the holder to make unlimited calls for free.

Turned out that they worked on the plane as well.

The last time I remember seeing someone use an airphone was about five years ago. At $6 per minute Verizon simply priced themselves out of the market. Once it had been proved that standard cell phones work fine paying $360 per hour for the monopolist product became a mugs game.

I tend to wonder how many people watch the movies in hotel rooms for the same reason. They cost as much as a film on DVD. The choice is lousy and unlike real TV the pause button does not work.

So for me Internet on planes all comes down to price. $10 for a six hour Boston-SFO flight is a no-brainer. $20 is acceptable but much beyond that point it becomes usury.

The lack of cell phone service does not worry me a bit. I can still pull voicemail down from my Vonage line which forwards all voicemails as email attachments. Those who really need synchronous communications can learn to instant message.