"The nice thing about a long-haul flight is you've got time to do a lot of different things," said Jack Blumenstein, chief executive of Aircell.
True. You can read. You can watch the movie or, on a few airlines, enjoy live satellite television. You can work, eat, drink or sleep. And now, thanks to new technology by Aircell, you can get broadband Internet service on your laptop.
But one thing you may not do is use that Internet hookup for VoIP, the voice over Internet protocol services provided by companies like Skype. In other words, you may not use your newly empowered laptop connection in flight to make a voice phone call, even though the technological capability to do so is there.
Reflecting the continuing battles over mobile use in new public settings, Aircell and American Airlines -- so far the only airline offering Aircell's in-flight Internet access, called Gogo -- have erected technological barriers to block Skype and similar software programs from enabling voice calls in the insulated environment of the airplane cabin. American Airlines began offering Gogo last month.
Whether they ultimately succeed is open to question because, as Blumenstein acknowledges, the technologically savvy are good at getting around barriers.
"Whenever you get an innovative group of people flying," he said, "you're going to have some people saying: 'Well, I know how to defeat that. I'm just going to go around the barn door.'"
For years, airlines and many of their passengers have expressed concern about the inevitability of in-flight cell phone capability, now that flight safety issues like the potential for interference with avionics communications at cruising altitude are resolved.
But with little advance notice, the Aircell broadband service has brought the camel's nose into the tent. And while there are raging controversies about cell phone use on ground-based public transportation like trains...

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