Wi-Fi in the sky coming to Canada. You onboard?

In case you haven't heard the news, Montreal-based SkySurf Canada has won a license for inflight Internet and is looking to partner with Air Canada and other airlines. Is Wi-Fi something you want in the friendly skies?

A few years back I hosted a TV spot entitled Wi-Fi in the Sky, while onboard a Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) jet from Copenhagen to Newark. The now-defunct satellite-based service called Connnexion by Boeing let passengers with laptops surf the Internet at high-speeds, wirelessly, for roughly $25 on a one-way flight.

It worked, and quite well at that. In fact, on the abovementioned video you can see me Skyping with my kids back home from my seat on the plane. Pretty wild stuff for 30,000 feet.

After substantial investment, Boeing announced in 2006 it would scrap its service due to a general lack of interest from airline carriers. Perhaps it was simply ahead of its time.

Well, onboard Internet is coming back again in Asia, Europe and the U.S. -- and soon, in Canada, provided by the aptly-named SkySurf Canada.

Personally, I've got mixed feelings about this.

On one hand, I love the idea of being able to pass the time by surfing the Internet, picking up email, downloading music or playing multiplayer games. This can help those 5-hour flights from Toronto to Vancouver, or at least make it more productive for me as a traveling journalist.

But on the flipside, we already live in a somewhat 24/7 work culture, forever tethered to the office via Blackberry (even at night, weekends and holidays) and an airplane ride might be the only reprieve you get, the only chance to close your eyes for a few minutes and let the stress melt away (unless you're sitting in front of the kid who likes to kick their seat or a near that crying baby in seat 8b).

Plus, do you really want to hear a suit yelling at a colleague over a business deal gone wrong via Skype, Windows Live Messenger or other VoIP solution?
 
The cost might also be an obstacle for some (though if it's comparable to Connexion by Boeing, $25 is a drop in a bucket for an executive who can expense it or write it off), but what if the service is spotty, are you going to complain to the flight attendant? "Miss, I asked for milk with my coffee and the videos are stuttering on YouTube!"

What are your thoughts on this? If Wi-Fi was offered on your next flight, would you pay for it? Or should an airplane ride be a quiet respite from the rat race? Here's the reality: onboard Internet in Canada is a matter of when, not if, so how will you cope?

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