Tony Hallett's After These Messages: Fly high Wi-Fi

Lufthansa is crowing about its rollout of wireless net access inside its aircraft. Announcements from rivals are on their way. But, asks Tony Hallett, is this wave of progress more about business productivity or overcoming the tedium of long-haul?

It's early days for Wi-Fi wireless internet access on board planes. Lufthansa has gained some cachet by being the first carrier (in the airline sense) to team with Connexion by Boeing and bring a service to a long-haul flight (ironically on an Airbus aircraft). It has just beaten Emirates, another 'net in the sky' frontrunner.

Hence the subject of this column, focusing on a recent billboard and online campaign.

There will be a similar system called Tenzing, backed by rival commercial airline builder Airbus, but it is the Boeing-created set-up - soon to be used by others such as BA, Japan Airlines, SAS and Singapore Airlines as well as the German flag carrier - that has grabbed most headlines.

So far the service is only on the Munich-LA-Munich route but go along to Lufthansa's website and you can see the airline is pretty pleased with itself. It is carrying its photo-based ads and a quiz with prizes - a mix of Simon memory test and questions about its FlyNet service - to drum up interest in in-flight access.

Does it sound like a good deal? At $30 per long-haul flight (or a planned $20 or so for long-haul flights under six hours - mid-haul, perhaps?), most likely put on expenses by a lot of individual users, it seems reasonable. Certainly in comparison to what travellers might pay in a hotel - where there are other connectivity options - it looks attractive.

Early tests, experienced first-hand by colleagues of mine in North America, also seem to suggest the technology flies, as it were.

So what are the drawbacks? The first of two main billboard creatives features a smart, good-looking-yet-grey-haired executive - you know the type, Nokia have made a business on the back of such cosmopolitan characters - studying a laptop screen in the airline's business class. Passengers around him are seen sleeping or eating.

A second big advert is more interesting still. It strikes a knowing balance between the extra work that can now be done in what was previously offline time and acknowledging it will be a way to keep in touch with life's more fun pursuits - a young businessman is seen from the side, hands aloft in celebration as his team scores in a game of (probably) football, sorry, fußball.

Now this looks like a fine example of connectivity at 30,000 feet. I can't recall the number of times I've boarded a plane with a key game about to kick off and left wondering what happened for the next 10 hours. (Is it me or are captains willing to radio back for such info to announce to the cabin becoming a rarity these days?)

Watching a live football game over the internet? It's actually a bit of a marketing ploy. It rarely happens due to a number of factors. There are one or two pay-per-view options from recent years, usually over individual clubs' websites, but issues around streaming and rights to show games live have made this one of the web's less innovative areas.

For the sake of this article, let's assume our cheery Lufthansa flyer was reliving his team's success in a recent Champions League game (UEFA has a highlights package it posts after midnight CET on match days and will offer a Euro 2004 service.)

As for work, what might such connectivity mean? A recent opinion piece by Butler Group analyst Mike Davis makes a good point. He asks whether 'always on' means 'always productive'. He, I and probably countless others have found over the years that time spent in a plane or on a train or even in the back of a car on a long journey can be invaluable at catching up with lots of work, especially non-urgent email. The key is lack of distraction - no calls, 'urgent' emails appearing or, newer scourge, IM boxes popping up.

To dig up another advertising (and football) reference, think of Eric Cantona on the Eurostar going on about "the freedom to move, to think, to work, to breathe" - philosopher that he was.

Being away from everyone you know may only be good enough when they can't virtually pester you. As Davis says: "Without a level of discipline, it is very easy to get distracted, to change subject and lose a train of thought."

And this isn't even to touch on issues such as continually deleting new spam or security, from other passengers' wireless connections as much as anything.

People will pay for internet access on planes. Lots of airlines and equipment suppliers will benefit from the trend. We may even see a lot more innovative advertising than Man In The Sky Watching Football.

But don't expect it not to have a downside.