NEW YORK - PASSENGERS may soon hear a new in-flight announcement: 'You can now log on.'

Starting next week and over the next few months, several American airlines will begin testing Internet services on their planes.

On Tuesday, JetBlue Airways will begin offering a free e-mail and instant messaging service on one aircraft, while American Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines plan to offer a broader Web experience in the coming months, probably at a cost of around US$10 (S$14) a flight.

'I think 2008 is the year we will finally start to see in-flight Internet access become available, but I suspect the rollout domestically will be in a very measured way,' said Mr Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Forrester Research.

'In a few years, if you get on a flight that doesn't have Internet access, it will be like walking into a hotel room that doesn't have TV.'

The airlines' goal is to turn their planes into the equivalent of a wireless hot spot once an aircraft reaches its cruising altitude.

Virgin America even plans to link the technology to its seat-back entertainment system, enabling passengers who are not travelling with laptops or smartphones to send messages on a flight. The network can also potentially be used for communications within the plane, like food and drink orders - something Virgin America already does with its seat-back system.

While companies have been promising airborne Internet service for years - aircraft manufacturer Boeing did offer a system that was adopted by a few international carriers, including Singapore Airlines, but is now defunct - JetBlue will be the first carrier in the US to offer connectivity, albeit in a limited way.

But if a test flight on Wednesday is any indication of the challenges airlines and their technology partners face in trying to offer connectivity at 10,700m and 800kmh, travellers can initially expect an experience reminiscent of the days of dial-up access - slower and more prone to problems than a typical connection on the ground.

'Sometimes you just have to put things out there and see what happens when people try to use it,' said Mr Nate Quigley, chief executive of LiveTV, a JetBlue subsidiary responsible for the airline's Internet service as well as its in-flight entertainment system. 'We'll find the bugs and eventually get them worked out.'

LiveTV is one of several companies aiming to introduce in-flight Internet access in 2008 after years of false starts by companies like Boeing, whose satellite-based system required heavy, expensive equipment on each plane.

One advantage of satellite technology is that it works over the ocean, whereas LiveTV's air-to-ground cellular system functions only over the continental United States. It also involves a hand-off process between cell sites as the plane travels across the country.

JetBlue and LiveTV are betting that their messaging capability is more important to travellers than surfing the Web, which requires more bandwidth and therefore a fee.

But other companies are convinced that plenty of travellers will pay for more extensive Web access and are considering fees of around US$10 a flight.

That view is bolstered by a recent survey by Forrester Research that found that 26 per cent of leisure travellers would pay US$10 for Internet access on a two- to four-hour flight and 45 per cent would pay that amount for a flight longer than four hours.

'I think that the airlines will see that the demand is there,' Mr Harteveldt said, adding that besides sharing the revenue from these fees, airlines could potentially earn money from advertising on these services or use the cabin's Wi-Fi network to enhance their operations.

NEW YORK TIMES