As millions of travelers prepare to fly home for the holidays this year, a few thousand can expect to try out a new generation of onboard e-mail and text-messaging services using their own cellphones and portable devices.
Starting this week and over the next few months, several airlines in the United States and Europe are due to begin testing these new services on some of their planes, with plans to roll out the technology across most of their fleets over the next 12 to 18 months.
Eventually, a few plan to enable voice calls, too.
On Tuesday, the U.S. carrier JetBlue Airways will begin offering a free e-mail and instant messaging service on one aircraft, while American Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines plan to offer a broader Web experience in the coming months, probably at a cost of around $10 a flight.
Airborne phone calls are already here; I flew home last week in an aircraft with two phones at each seat-row.
You can trust that the new in-flight internet services will cost you an arm and a half-leg.