Lufthansa begins trial of mile-high broadband access

By Alun Williams

Posted on 15 Jan 2003 at 12:51

LH418 is not another acronym for a new technology. It is the Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Washington DC that will now offer passengers in-flight broadband Internet access.

The new service will be available today to all passengers on Lufthansa flying between Frankfurt and Washington, with the free three-month trial running until 15 April.

Not only will business passengers be able to plug laptops into sockets near their seats or use wireless LAN (WLAN) technology, but Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebooks (S6010) will be available for onboard loan. Even onboard technical support is promised - on each flight there will be a three trained 'FlyNet' Assistants.

By the summer Lufthansa plans to introduce the FlyNet service throughout its long-range fleet, numbering 80 aircraft. At this stage, Lufthansa will be pricing the Internet access at between 30 and 35 euros per flight leg.

A spokesperson for Lufthansa told us that the German carrier is currently working with the Federal Aviation Office (LBA) for permission to use WLAN technology in general use in other flights. This will be needed to allow all passengers to access the service throughout the plane, and not just restrict it to business class.

Lufthansa's 747-400 aircrafts will use Boeing's Connexion system, which - we reported back in May - was the first to get approval for airborne, satellite-based broadband services. Other carriers that have expressed an interest include British Airways, American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta.

While Lufthansa claim the crown for being the first commercial airline to provide broadband Internet, Virgin were the first with e-mail and SMS messaging, back in August 2002.