ZDNet reported that Southwest and American Airlines will start providing on-board internet on their flights this year. But more central to the article is the explanation behind in-flight connectivity's failures:

"Connexion by Boeing was developed starting in 2000," Harteveldt said. Initially, "United, American, and Delta were going to be business partners, but after 9/11, they pulled out. So Boeing had to develop it alone. (It) was developed for twin-aisle planes like the 747. It was not optimized or sized down for single-aisle planes like the 757 or 737, and those types of planes make up the majority of planes flying in North America."

While I don't agree that the biggest potential for the service lies in intercontinental US (an assumption backed up by "the biggest air-traffic market in the world is the U.S. domestic market") I totally dig the notion that air internet will only really take-off (pun intended) when the prices are a low enough for the general consumer market. Imagine how much more useful smartphones and PDAs with Wi-Fi built-in will be then!