Veteran Times tech/ecommerce columnist writes about Internet access in the air and in the terminal: Regular readers of this site will find this New York Times piece covers territory we write about and link to regularly, albeit the article has less detail as it's intended for a broader traveling audience with less interest in the particular technologies and speed, but rather more about the applications.

Tenzing is fairly covered, but it should be noted that they'll be able to compete on speed with Connexion by Boeing when they are able to use Inmarsat's new satellites. Connexion by Boeing is now in five Lufthansa planes, this article discloses, and Tenzing low-speed and email service is in hundreds of planes.

The article notes that Tenzing has dropped its prices a bit, from $16 for domestic flights down to $10. Surcharges applies for email attachments, but I believe as before there are ways to prevent viewing the surcharged part of the email until you decide you need to see it. Shorter flights might cost as little as $5 earlier this year; international flights run $20.

I'm not sure what this sentence was supposed to mean, but it appears to have become garbled in editing: Tenzing, for now, operates at roughly the same speed as most dial-up modem connections, because it relies on radio frequency signals to send and retrieve data. But speeds could improve considerably, depending on whether the airline chooses a satellite connection. I believe the writer would have written that Tenzing is relying on a lower-speed network in the U.S., but the satellite system they employ internationally and will use for higher-speed services starting in 2005 uses radio frequencies, too--just different ones.

The big news, reported a number of times earlier, is that Tenzing will able to cut the cord out of its domestic operations, FCC approval pending, to allow Wi-Fi access to its service. In domestic flights, you have to use the seat-back or arm-rest telephone to connect. Quite an ordeal, which the company openly acknowledges.