IT IS HARD to say who has it worse during long-haul air travel: a smoker without a cigarette or an Internet junkie separated from his e-mail fix. Fortunately for the latter, the days of yearning for your in-box are numbered. In the coming months, airlines will conquer the final frontier of disconnectivity and offer Internet services to their passengers. For those who cling to the online world the way a child does to his favourite blanket, the move has been a long time coming. 'I wish they would just hurry up,' said frequent flier Mark Phibbs, general manager for Microsoft in Hong Kong. Like many business travellers, Mr Phibbs finds his time in the air to be highly productive. What he lacks is e-mail. With gadgets available that let people stay online whenever and wherever they want (except in a plane), e-mail has become almost as critical to communications as the telephone. So the case for Internet access on aircraft would seem easy to make. Boeing says three million people board 42,300 flights daily, and about half of all passengers are business travellers. The company's research also shows that in the United States, the world's largest aviation market, one in three passengers carries a laptop. So what is the hold up? Three years after passengers were first teased with the promise of being airborne and online, carriers and aircraft manufacturers are only taking their first cautious steps towards offering the service. First, technology had to be developed that would not interfere with an aircraft's navigation system. It had to be light enough that connection ports could be wired to each seat. It also had to be better and cheaper than using the slow, dial-up modem service available through some in-flight phones. 'It has taken longer to get to market than passengers, including me, would have liked, but it has been a technological challenge to get it to work reliably,' said John Wade, general manager of Tenzing, a US-based firm specialising in wiring aircraft for the Internet. 'We are there now. We are integrating not only all the terrestrial networks that are needed for e-mail and [short-messaging services], server access etc, but also all the airborne components including satellite communications and cabin systems that connect to the passenger. It has taken time to ensure that those disparate networks will communicate reliably all the time.' The September 11 terrorist attacks were also a setback as airline profits plunged and plans to offer new services were dropped in an effort to cut costs. Major players including Air Canada, American Airlines, Delta and United Airlines all delayed their Internet plans. Since then, airlines have taken a more sober approach to the technology, with some deciding to start with a more modest offering of e-mail and short-messaging services (SMS) instead of full-scale broadband Web browsing. Cathay Pacific Airways began wiring its fleet earlier this year and has completed 30 aircraft. Passengers in first class, business and the front cabin of economy will have access to a satellite e-mail service through Tenzing, in which Cathay holds a minority stake. Laptops can be connected at each seat, which will include a power supply. Cathay spokesman Patrick Garrett said the airline had kept the service low-key, and would initially offer it free of charge. 'We are in the pre-launch phase, and are not promoting it strongly until we have most of our aircraft fitted. Otherwise passengers would be disappointed if they have planned on using the system and discover it is not available on a particular aircraft,' he said. Beginning next month, passengers on Singapore Airlines flights will be able to send a short text message to an e-mail address or a mobile phone, using their in-seat monitor screens and handsets. The airline is also studying the feasibility of providing on-board chatrooms hosted on the cabin intranet. (As in: 'hey, u in seat 12C, shud I get the chicken or the fish?') The service will be free during a three-month promotional period. German carrier Lufthansa hopes to go one step further and be the first airline to offer full broadband Web browsing to its passengers using the Connexion system by Boeing. Europe's second-largest carrier will begin testing the technology at the end of November on a Boeing 747-400 and start trials with passengers in January 2003. The airline plans to deploy the service over the next two years on its 80 aircraft flying intercontinental routes from Europe to North America and Asia. The system uses a wireless local area network in the cabin connected to a satellite link. The airline will have laptops available for passengers to use. Detlev Kuehne, strategic account manager for Cisco, the company providing some of the technology for Lufthansa, said the service was expected to be as popular as in-flight movies after it proved itself. 'I see a huge demand for this type of technology once people see that it works. To start with, it will be business travellers, but eventually it will be offered to economy-class passengers as well,' he said. Other airlines, including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Brazil's Varig are also getting online. British satellite communications firm Inmarsat recently joined the market as well, offering its Swift64 broadband system to corporate jet owners this month and to commercial airliners by year's end. The system requires a US$200,000 upgrade to an aircraft's avionics, as well as wiring for an Internet jack at each seat. But even with the apparent demand for Internet in the sky, there is good reason for the airlines to be cautious. Other technologies that were a hit on the ground have failed to take off. With air time priced at HK$50 a minute or more, seat-mounted telephones, for example, have failed to gain popularity. Tenzing's Mr Wade said he expected to see e-mail emerge as the most viable Internet service. Browsing Web sites - which requires a high amount of bandwidth - would be much more expensive than SMS or e-mail. He predicted that the airborne Internet would run into the same problem as the earth-bound version: people would be reluctant to pay for what they were used to getting for free. 'I am not at all certain that passengers will pay high fees for Internet content on board. Messaging and e-mail, yes. Content, less likely,' he said. While services initially will be free, the airlines eventually will want to recover their costs. The ideal price point commonly cited is to charge roughly the same amount as people pay for a mobile phone call on the ground. Meanwhile, as airlines continue to fret over pricing strategies and technology, Mr Phibbs and millions of travellers like him are still waiting for the day they can sit back, plug in and get their much-needed Internet fix. Graphic: anal18gbz