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Fliers can e-mail over water
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LOS ANGELES - In what could become a boon for workaholics, Singapore Airlines was set to usher in the age of e-mail and Internet on transoceanic flights with the arrival of a Boeing 747 here Sunday night.
“Passengers, for the first time, can send and receive e-mail no matter where they are in the skies,” said airline spokesman James Boyd.
Singapore begins regular service for the system aboard the single 747, the first of 56 widebodies that will get e-mail and Internet over the next 14 months at a cost of more than
$100 million.
As e-mail has become a communications staple, airlines have been under increasing pressure to offer access to it. But the rollout has been frustratingly slow - not only because of lagging technology, but because airlines are hesitant to invest in systems that could quickly become outdated. How the technology is advancing:
. Air Canada started offering e-mail and Internet access in January on five Boeing 767s using a system that beams information to ground stations. It doesn't work over the ocean. Some 7,000 laptop-toting passengers signed up to test the system through next month.
. Singapore Airlines has a more sophisticated system that sends batches of e-mail between the plane, a satellite and the ground so messages can be transmitted over land or water during the 14-hour flights between Asia and the West Coast. The system is also the first that lets travelers access their company's mailbox without penetrating the network's security for blocking hackers.
. Singapore will offer the service through the telephone handsets in first, business and economy classes. A drawback: only 28 laptop users out of a maximum 386 passengers aboard can send or receive at one time. The service is free through September. Then, a small charge will be instituted for each e-mail. The maker of all the systems in use, Tenzing Communications, recommends total charges start at $10.
. Cathay Pacific will introduce another Tenzing system by the end of summer that won't limit the number of passengers who can use the onboard e-mail. Virgin Atlantic also will the e-mail-capable planes by the end of year.
No U.S. carriers have ordered a system. “It's definitely something we are looking into,” says United Airlines spokesman Matt Triaca.
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