For those technophiles itching to be on the cutting edge of technology once again, $449 seats are still available on JetBlue’s inaugural Web access flight from New York to San Francisco on Tuesday, December 11.
“Betablue,” JetBlue’s specially equipped A320, is scheduled to take off at 8:00 a.m. EST from JFK Airport. Along the way, passengers will have a chance to test the future of air travel: wireless communication with people on the ground.
Last year, JetBlue and its subsidiary, LiveTV, spent $7 million to buy a 1-MHz segment of the electromagnetic spectrum previously owned by Verizon Airfone. If the initial test is successful, JetBlue will use the spectrum to expand its own offerings and possibly license the service to other airlines.
Classic Test Flight
Although reporters and analysts offered mixed reviews for BetaBlue’s Wi-Fi service after sampling the service last week, there is general agreement that JetBlue’s service will rapidly accelerate the availability of Internet access on commercial flights.
Alison Eshelman, the manager of corporate communications for JetBlue, declined to offer technical specifications about the network, but said that it has been optimized for e-mail and messaging.
“In order to provide the maximum amount of service to people on the plane,” Eshelman said in a phone interview, “we looked at ways for customers to communicate with friends and family on the ground, in a simple and fun way, and something that would be free and available to all our customers. That’s why we’re offering access through Yahoo Mail and Messaging, or through Wi-Fi-capable BlackBerries.”
Eshelman reiterated that JetBlue has no schedule yet for expanding its service to other flights. “We will listen to what passengers have to say,” Eshelman promised, “and work from there to rolling the service out on a fleet-wide basis, depending on what our customers want.”
She also said that although…