BetaBlue: Still Free, Less Limited

There was about a 1" tall article in the WSJ this week explaining that JetBlue has expanded their Beta test of inflight Wi-Fi. WSJ subscription required, so link here instead. Here is why you can ignore this progress:

• The service is still only offered on one plane. Not a typo, one plane.


• The service now allows access to one web site, Amazon.com. Not a typo, one web site.

Here's why it's kind of interesting:

• E-mail now available via Gmail, Microsoft, and AOL


• One can conclude that the limited test to date has been successful, allowing [extremely nominal and arguably negligible] expansion of the pilot. Hopefully this means a full and worthwhile deployment may follow in our lifetimes.

We have to assume, given how much convention hotels charge for Internet access, many passengers would gladly pony up say $5/hour or $10-$20/flight (or more) for e-mail access. Corporate travel buyers may not be giddy about that prospect, but certainly Jetblue is. That aside, a nice round of applause for the PR person that padded their release count with this "news".