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The Big Three Pioneers Of Long-Haul In-Flight WiFi Are...

It feels like just yesterday that Virgin America and AirTran introduced fleet wide in-flight WiFi, and already the long-haul carriers are buzzing with the desire to bring connectivity to international routes. They are so feeling the ants in the pants, that already a "Big Three" has emerged—the pioneers for the next two years in this area: Lufthansa as they resurrect their "FlyNet" with Panasonic, Virgin Atlantic as they ponder how best to go about this with their 2011 aircraft deliveries, and now Emirates.

Emirates is already the king of long-haul connectivity, since they're pioneering the use of cell phones in-flight (60 aircraft are already outfitted with the AeroMobile technology) and you can currently check your email and SMS through a seat-back dial-up connection. And now, naturally, they turn to bringing the whole internet aboard through a satellite-based service called Ku-Band. Nothing's been decided yet, but Emirates did say that they aren't happy with the Connexion by Boeing idea, which Lufthansa had in the past.

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