Internet dilemmas prepare for take-off

ACCESSING the Internet while flying is about to be introduced by the airlines, and is bringing a list of problems with it.

"This gets into a ticklish area," said Vint Cerf, one of the Internet's chief inventors and generally a critic of network restrictions.

"Airlines have to be sensitive to the fact that customers are close together and may be able to see each other's PC screens. More to the point, young people are often aboard the plane."

Technology providers and airlines are already making decisions. Some will block services such as Internet phone calls altogether while others will put limits and install filters on content. And traffic management tools that are frowned upon on terra firma could be commonplace in the air.

Panasonic Avionics Corp, which is testing airborne services on Australia's Qantas Airways, is designing its high-speed Internet services to block sites on "an objectionable list," including pornography and violence, said David Bruner, executive director for corporate sales and marketing.

He said airlines based in more restrictive countries could choose to expand the list.

The company is also recommending that airlines permit Internet-based phone calls only on handsets with WiFi capabilities. Bruner said the company believes WiFi handsets use less bandwidth than telephone software that runs on laptops.

Airlines, he said, could also block incoming calls - and the annoying ring tones they produce - or designate periods of quiet time.

OnAir, which has European certification for airborne cellular services, plans to give airlines similar choices, Chief Executive Benoit Debains said. Although some airlines are concerned about noise, Debains said, voice enabling would generate more revenue than data-only services.

Air France, which plans to start allowing cellular calls through OnAir in months, said it would see how people use such services before crafting rules.

"Are you going to reach your wife to tell her what you did the entire day or just tell her, 'Can you pick me up at the airport?'," Air France spokeswoman Marina Tymen said, adding that passengers might tell the airline that data services fulfill all their needs.

US airlines are largely taking the opposite approach.

With possible exceptions for crew and federal air marshals, people on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines flights won't have access to Internet-based phone services such as Skype. Virgin America is also considering a ban.

But the three have no plans to filter sites based on content. At most, an airline may manage traffic and delay large downloads, or in Virgin's case give passengers the option of enabling controls for their kids.