Lufthansa to add in-flight broadband by 2008 for long-hauls

Posted Aug 1st 2007 11:49AM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Wireless, Transportation

Lufthansa is apparently continuing the airborne scramble to get customers connected, announcing that with the help of T-Mobile it will be reinstating its broadband service (formerly from Connexion) to its long-haul flights by 2008.

While other airlines throughout Europe are racing to offer in-flight calling for shorter trips, Lufthansa says that "the vast majority told us they don't want this feature," which makes sense, since no one likes a loud-talker in an enclosed space.

Instead, the Cologne-based company is rolling out a service which will allow broadband connections for laptops, text-messaging on phones, and wireless email (and data, we assume) on hand-helds, similar to recent offerings we've seen from other carriers. Of course, Lufthansa's passengers could still be annoyed by chatter if someone gets clever and decides to rock Skype on a trans-atlantic trip -- unless the airline has plans for blocking VoIP. Only they know for sure.