Until recently, leaving the ground meant leaving high-speed Internet access behind. Now, two international providers provide in-air service that goes far beyond the paltry 9.6Kbps rate you might get for a buck a minute or more from a seatback handset.

While the services offer up to a few hundred Kbps per user, streaming video and audio are not likely to work well. On the other hand, reports show that Skype and other voice-over-IP software apps are usable. Downloads, Web surfing, and email are the best uses of the services.

Connexion

Connexion by Boeing is a division of the aircraft maker that has leased satellite transponders around the globe to provide seamless access to an increasingly large fleet of broadband-equipped airplanes operated by a number of major carriers.

Connexions service is 5Mbps down and 1Mbps up, although its clear from traveler reports that each passenger may be throttled down to a few hundred Kbps to ensure fairness. Connexion has the option to offer airlines up to 20Mbps downstream.

The service is available via Wi-Fi in all of the airlines that offer it, which include All-Nippon Airlines (ANA), JAL, Lufthansa, and SAS. Other airlines outside the U.S. are planning to install the service, but it will almost exclusively be available on over-water and long-haul flights. No North American-based airline has signed up for domestic or international flights as yet.

The charges for Connexion service are based on the duration of a flight. Pay-as-you-go rates include 30 minutes and are $7.95 for flights of under three hours and $9.95 for longer flights; additional minutes are 25 cents each. Flat rates for unlimited use during a flight are $14.95 for flights of under three hours, $19.95 for three- to six-hour flights, and $29.95 for flights of over six hours.

Boeing is rolling out streaming video broadcasts in flight that will be included in the cost of a data connection.

Tenzing

Connexions only competition comes from Tenzing, whose service is sold under the Verizon JetConnect and Webmail by Tenzing labels in the US, and is installed on most Continental, Delta, and United domestic aircraft. The downside to Tenzing's domestic service is that it operates at a mere 128Kbps, and currently supports only email and instant messaging through a special Web interface.

Corporate and ISP mail servers that dont allow POP connections or that have a special Outlook server plug-in cant be used to retrieve email. Some corporations have special arrangements with Tenzing that allow their email systems to interact with their closed email gateway.

Verizons JetConnect includes instant messaging and text messaging and costs $5.99 per flight segment for unlimited use. Verizons offering of Webmail by Tenzing is $3.99 for up two consecutive hours or $8.99 for an entire flight segment. This includes unlimited email messages up to 5KB in length each, but attachments or longer emails cost 10 cents per kilobyte.

Tenzing does have a higher-speed offering in the works which will offer speeds of 400- to 1.6Mbps in each direction, depending on an airlines deployment, but that newer offering relies on the newest generation of satellites from its partner Inmarsat. This service should launch on over-water flights by late 2005.

In early June, United announced that it had successfully gotten approval from the FCC to offer another service that Verizon is planning: a high-speed air-to-ground offering that will fall between Connexion and the current JetDirect -- probably 1 to 2 Mbps downstream and somewhat less upstream from the plane via Wi-Fi. United has only had a single model of plane approved so far out of its fleet, and Verizon needs to purchase new broadband licenses at auction in late 2005 to operate the service. But United plans to offer this service system-wide by late 2006.