Collaboration Loop - Turning Off the Collaboration Spigot at 30,000 Feet

David Goldes writes at Collaboration Loop about Boeing's recent announcement that it was ending it's Connexion in-flight Internet service. I had the opportunity to use the service one time on a flight from Frankfurt to Washington D.C., and it worked flawlessly, allowing me to surf and hold an instant message session with a co-worker while crossing the Atlantic at 37,000 feet.

Boeing notes that the service had low adoption rates by carriers. I'm surprised. One would think that given the ubiquity of wireless, there would be a great deal of demand for WiFi in the sky. Given the need for airlines to develop new revenue models, I would have thought that some, especially those extremely popular with business travelers such as JetBlue, would have jumped at the chance to add yet another pay-as-you-go service to go along with lunchboxes and such.

Maybe these services will gain new life once wireless iPods hit the street and create demand for WiFi that extends beyond the business traveler with a laptop. Of course, if security crackdowns continue maybe we'll all go back to reading books on flights.