Neowin.net

Scandinavian Airlines on Wednesday said it will offer high-speed Internet access aboard some long-haul flights, letting passengers surf the Internet or send e-mail. As signed a contract with Boeing Co. to install its wireless broadband service, Connexion, aboard two planes in February. The rest of its long-haul fleet will be equipped in 2005. The cost wasn't disclosed. In May, Boeing signed a similar contract with German airline Lufthansa to equip all 80 of its long-haul jets with the service. In June, United Airlines said it would offer two-way e-mail capability aboard all its domestic flights by the end of the year.

The first SAS flights to be equipped with the technology will be trans-Atlantic and routes to and from Asia, said Jens Willumsen, senior vice president for market and product management at Scandinavian Airlines. Passengers will be charged between $30 and $35 a flight for unlimited use, Willumsen said. Connexion's service requires installing two antennas on each aircraft, one to transmit data to satellites and one to receive data. A server and routing system inside the plane relay signals to and from plug-in ports at the seats or wireless networking cards in passengers' laptops, essentially turning the entire plane into a Wi-Fi hotspot.

"The Nordic region is one of the world's most IT-dense areas and the ability to communicate easily from the air was high on our passengers' list of priorities," Willumsen said. Scandinavian Airlines Systems - the joint carrier of Sweden, Denmark and Norway - operates hotels and airline support businesses. SAS also operates Spanair, Braathens, Wideroe and Air Botnia. Willumsen said the company hopes the service could drive revenue, adding the airline wants to be known for its "solutions and electronics" to make "travel fit smoothly into passengers' lives."

The company has been struggling to cut costs and save money. In April, it said it would eliminate 4,000 jobs, or nearly 13 percent of its work force, to counter dropping demand and increased competition from low-cost, no-frills carriers. The company employs nearly 31,000 workers.

View: SAS website

Brightmail said that its monitoring has also found that spam email in the UK is rapidly becoming more offensive.

In June 2003 over 20 per cent of spam was pornographic, making it the second largest UK spam category following the 34 per cent of spam offering products for sale.

In the US only 19 per cent of spam fell into the adult category in June.

Speaking at the UK Spam Summit, Enrique Salem, chief executive at Brightmail, said: "No one thought that spam would be the primary use of email, so they did not have solutions built in to provide better security.

"The spam we saw six months ago is not the spam that we see today. We are in an arms race."

Salem believes that the spam problem could be "under control in the next three years", provided that there are combined efforts from ISPs, technology companies, legitimate direct marketing firms and legislation.

While the volume of adult spam is disturbing, the largest category of spam continues to come from illegitimate direct mail companies that offer products to email users who have not requested to be contacted.

Stephen Timms, minister for energy, e-commerce and postal services, said that the government recognised that spam is a growing problem, and one that could put people off using the internet.

"This is an area where there are huge problems and great frustrations. But it is an area where there are solutions as well," he said.

"We don't want to suggest that spam will disappear, but well thought through regulation, industry action and user awareness can help make big inroads."