New In-Flight E-Mail Falls Short ~i~\\~~ use, Tenzlng and airlines involved Hooking Laptop Into Airfone won't disclose sales, but 'Td be lying '\~", . "'" ,""\, if I said we were ecstatic about use." Proves Cumbersome, Pricey; ';":>\ ~: ~",'H,& .~. '~_·'·:.···'··,,;, . .~,., says Tenzlng's chief executive. Alan ~..'". A"";I'.·\'t:,'":'~'... :. ," ~ . "" McGinnis. "I tbink our product is too Europe's Carriers Raise Bar ", f', ': complicated, which is typical of a first . \) !, """ ,:',' ?"".' '" " , . release," And. he adds, "Price is an HICH WOULD YOU rather have aboard issue," He says $10 or below wouid be an airplane !light: a wireless Internet """~~;~i.l~i" a price users would be more comfort­ W connection with fast speeds-or a ,,-,~~ able with, But because the telephone clunky e-mail service wired through one of those link Is expensive, Tenzlng is priced seat·back telephones? well above that for now, That might seem like a no·bralner. but It's actu­ Still. it was first to the market. and ally an expensive dilemma for airlines right now. some 900 airplanes offer Its in,OIght Unl'led, Continental and US Airways have been "~,:.,,.'f ,. e·mall. Importantly, there's almost no offering In·flight e-mail for several months t!. " ,,,,,,, ,\~ cost to airlines, since It uses the Air· l'~, 'it. " ,j'l " through a company called Tenzlng Communica­ " '.tl " .', ~i fones already in place, tions Inc,. which Is European carriers are installing wlr..... Int.rnet ace.... That'sdifferent from Tenzlng'scom­ THE backed by Airbus, The called Connexion by Boeing, set to roll out next month, petltor, Connexlon by BoelngCo" which service involves plugging Is about to launch service next month on MIDDLE SEAT your laptop Into the exist­ Lufthansa, Connexion offers full Inter­ By Scott McCartney ing Verizon Airfones al­ Instance, If you and another mer In the same row net access through a wireless connection in an air­ ready mounted In seat bUy the service, you might have to plug your laptop plane cabin, It works much like any WI,Fi link in an backs. Like those phones, it·s rather pricey for Into an Alrfone In the row behind you. And, once alrportloungeoracoffeeshop: Yoa fire up yourlap­ passengers: In-night e·mail costs $15,98 a flight. you're plugged In, the technology Is cumbersome. top, and If it has a wireless connection card, you'll plus 10 cents a kilobyte for any file bigger than 5 Til gel your office e·mall, you'll probably need to get a Connexlon sign·in screen, You can register kilohytes. (Transmitting the text of this column. know details like the Internet "address" of your with Connexlon In advance, or when you're In the for instance. would cost an extra $2 or so,) company's e-mail server-something only a gear air, Alter you set upa user name and password, you Sounds simple enough-you plug your laptop head might have handy, (You can get direct access can go straight to the Internet. into the Airfone with a standard phone·Jack cable. to common providers sllch AOL, Yahoo or MSN,) You can read and send your e·mall, access It·s not tenibly speedy. and it can get messy. For Glless what: The service Isn't getting much Please Tum to Page D.1, Column I Airlines Face E-Mail Dilemma Continued From Page D1 tal. However, "most of our customers Web-based ·:news and sports, watch pro­ would ratherhave anInternetconnection­ gramming loaded onto Connexion's on­ that's the feedback we get." board server, and even view live video Boeing, which says it has proposals programming (on your PC) via a satellite­ out to 14 different atrlines, points out based link. Basically, it turns the plane that its full Internet access helps blunt into an Internet cafe with very crowded the differences with planes offering satel­ seating-a Starbucks with weaker coffee. lite television. Servers aboard airplanes Connexion will cost $9.95 for 30 minutes can spew progranuning such as movies or$29.95 for an entire flight, which is-by no and the History Channel, which, Boeing means cheap. But the bighurdIe is the cost likes to point out, doesn't really need to to atrlines. Carriers have to spend several be live. Add in other benefits of the inter­ hundred thousand dollars per plane, and net, and you might have something pas­ maybe as much as $500,000. Boeing won't sengers would be willing to pay for. say how much, but whatever it is, if you What's more, because international have 770 planes like American Airlines, it carriers are the first adopters, Boeing has adds up to a huge expenditure. already lined up satellite coverage for its For now, cash-strapped U.S. carriers service across the Atlantic and will have are taking a wait-and-see stance. Both coverage Over the Pacific, South America American and Delta Air Lines were early and Africa by next year or the year after. investors in Connexion but pulled out af­ For its part, Tenzing says it will ulti­ ter the 2001 attacks. Today, neither says mately be able to offer broadband ac· it's close to committing. cess."This is the first step in a long road After all, airlines invested in in-flight of technology moving from ground into telephones, only to fmd that the cell­ the atr," says Continental's Mr. Craver. phone explosion, not to mention the high The company that chooses the wrong cost and scratchy quality of the airplane technology could end up with airplane phones, rendered them unappealing. cabins far less appealing to business trav­ "It's easy to make a costly error in this . elers. The problem is thai to offer robust arena," says James Beer, chief financial service, a company has to invest. Lots of officer at AMR Corp., American's par­ atrlines are doing just that: Lufthansa ent. and Singapore, among others; have com­ Mr. Beer and other atrline executives, mitted to broadband Internet access. 'Ib many of them casting about for a competi· keep up with competitors, U.S. atrlines tive response to the in-flight satellite TV are going to have to bite the bullet, or now offered on some discount atrlines, risklosing high-dollar business travelers. say they want to provide service that cus­ The technology is now ripening, and tomers want and are willing to pay for. although U.S. carriers aren't yet ready to They're not yet sure what that is, but it pick the fruit, they'll soon have to. seems pretty clear that the market has al­ Journal Unlc Have a question ready spoken. On the ground, people will _ pay for high-speed Internet access. Con· for Scott woot air travel or the sumers want that in the air, too. Continen­ airline industry? Write to him at tal Airlines has heardthatin its passenger [email protected]. WSJ.com subscrib­ surveys. The Tenzing e-mail service is get­ ers can read answers to select questions tingsome use, says Kent Craver, manager in Middl£ Seat Mailbox, Tuesdays at of onboard product marketingatContinen- WSJ.com/JoumalUnks..