40,000 feet over Atlantic and you’ve got mail

For once, passengers on this morning’s Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt,

Germany, to Washington will be encouraged to use their portable electronic devices.

David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Those who board without a laptop can even get a loaner from the airline, just for the trip. They will help Lufthansa test a new system that gives passengers high-speed Internet access throughout the flight, even as they cruise 40,000 feet over the North Atlantic.

Built with gear from San Jose’s Cisco Systems, the system uses satellites to link passengers to their e-mail, company networks or favorite Web sites. They can work or simply kill time on the long flight.

"Today’s business traveler wants to remain connected to their offices and their customers whilst they are on the move," said Andreas Dohmen, vice president and general manager of Cisco’s operations in Germany. "With Lufthansa, we are working on solutions making mobile Internet access as simple as mobile telephony."

Today’s trial run marks the first test in a commercial aircraft of the system, created by a division of aerospace giant Boeing. Lufthansa will test the passenger Internet hookups for the next three months and, if all works as expected, expand the service to its entire intercontinental fleet during the next two years. British Airways will begin its own tests in February, said Sean Griffin, a spokesman for Connexion by Boeing.

Although the service will be free to Lufthansa passengers during the test, British Airways will charge about $30, Griffin said. Eventually, Connexion plans to charge customers to use the hookups, although the rates have not been determined. They will be based in part on how people respond to the service during the trials.

"We’re looking at both demos this quarter to give us a lot of information about how passengers really will behave — how much they use the service, how long they use it," Griffin said.

For this morning’s experiment, Lufthansa outfitted a Boeing 747-400 with equipment to handle both wireless Internet traffic and more traditional plug- in service. Passengers whose laptops have a wireless modem can simply start their computers to tap into one of five Cisco access points in the plane. Those who need to plug in their laptops to reach the Internet can do so at all 416 seats.

Cisco switching and routing gear will feed all of the Internet connections to a satellite antenna. The system’s software will detect when the plane is moving beyond the range of one satellite and will switch to another without interrupting service, Griffin said.

Connexion by Boeing, which already offers a version of this service on private executive planes, also has agreements with Japan Airlines and Scandinavian Airlines Systems to install the system on their planes.

E-mail David R. Baker at [email protected].

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