Boeing to offer Internet service

By Peter Robison
Bloomberg News

CHICAGO — Boeing was granted the first Federal Communications Commission license to let passengers send and receive data in flight, using a special antenna its Connexion unit plans to install on aircraft.

The license will allow commercial airliners and private jets to offer high-speed Internet access, television and e-mail above U.S. territory, the biggest planemaker said.

Boeing is still at least a year away from deploying the service with its sole commercial customer, Deu-tsche Lufthansa AG.

The three largest U.S. carriers, AMR Corp.'s American, UAL Corp.'s United and Delta Air Lines Inc., pulled out of plans to install the service after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks exacerbated a slowdown in air travel.

"The jury is still out on whether the Boeing business model will prove itself," said Robert Friedman, an analyst with Standard & Poor's Corp. "The satellite-based broadband industry is littered with several high-profile blowups."

Unlike its main rival, Tenzing Communications Inc., Boeing's service uses a surfboard-shaped antenna to beam signals to and from moving airplanes. Tenzing uses the existing satellite- telephone links and didn't have to win any special approvals, Scott said.

Connexion has said it is eliminating as many as 200 jobs at the in-flight Internet venture, one-third of the unit's work force. Many workers are being shifted to other Boeing units.