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CNN reports from 35,000 feet
LONDON, England (CNN) -- On a recent flight from London to New York, I spent five hours logged on to the Internet, keeping up to date with office developments, replying to e-mail -- and writing this article. In February British Airways followed Germany's largest airline Lufthansa in starting inflight Internet trials on select routes. It was possible to plug in your laptop and start surfing the Internet, sending and receiving e-mail, including attachments, and using Instant Messenger. But it means that the last bastion of refuge from the office -- the airline journey -- is no longer sacrosanct. When the teething problems are sorted, executives will have no excuse for being incommunicado. With e-mail a click away even at 35,000 feet, no longer will the tired traveller be able to say: "I was out of contact...flying all day." Now you will be expected to take part in Internet meetings via instant messaging, correct draft documents and return them soonest. And of course, e-mail morning, noon and night. The Connexion Internet system installed on the Boeing 747-400 uses a satellite antennae attached just under the roof of the aircraft. You can just about see the bump if you look carefully. Combined with 15,000 feet of cables, the antennae ensures we can plug in our laptops at our seats. The laptop has to be configured with an Ethernet modem. Many corporate laptops already have that for executives to use in the office or on broadband connections at home. A 56K modem will not work. No complicated software is required -- you connect to the seat and launch Internet Explorer and you're away. British Airways made the simplicity of passenger use a high priority when it commissioned the devise. "It was fundamental for us that customers could connect as easily as they do in their office or home" says BA's Kevin George, head of product development. They have only been partially successful. After plugging into the seat my laptop kept trying to dial as if I was using the dial-up modem, even though we were connected to the broadband Internet on board. Some tweaking of the Internet Options settings soon sorted that out. Boeing technicians are on board the early flights during the three-month trial period. "We want to ensure that passengers manage to connect to the system with the minimum of fuss. There may be a few teething problems," said Mike Woodward, head of Connexion in Europe. Potential problems include passengers not having the right modem in their laptops. Then there will be the problem of corporate firewalls, settings and policies that are designed to prevent unauthorised access. BA admits this in their instruction leaflet: "You may have a company configured laptop. It is likely that your company IT policy does not permit changes to the network configuration. Consult your IT administrator" it says. In other words, hard luck. So, forget the movies. Concentrate on the spreadsheets. Is this progress? I leave it to you. I have some e-mail to answer.
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