Just about the only place left for the business traveler to remain out-of-pocket is in flight. But that's about to change.

The concept of Internet access in flight is not novel - in fact, announcements of its implementation have been numerous. However, after nearly a decade of false starts, the first American carrier plane configured to offer free broadband access began service last Wednesday.

The plane is an American Airlines 767-200, offering service between New York and Los Angeles, and is the "guinea pig" for an anticipated rollout through this summer. Based on the results of last week's flights, American is expected to implement the service on all 15 of its 767-200s this month, on flights between New York's JFK and California (service to Los Angeles and San Francisco) and on one flight daily between JFK and Miami.

Other American carriers are expected to follow suit. Virgin America is still in testing stages with its platform, but expects to begin service in early 2009. Southwest will be testing its satellite-based system, which would allow service over water, on four of its planes over this summer. Like Southwest, Alaska Airlines is trying a satellite service developed by Row 44 Inc., with a projected rollout sometime this fall.

Of course, implementing new technology will bring some new questions to the table. On the question of how airlines will control inappropriate content, the response across the board has been that they'll count on passenger discretion, in addition to existing policies with regard to magazines and DVDs passengers bring on board.  The airlines have also opted to disable VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) calls, so any loud-talkers on board will only be able to make calls before and after flight, at least for now.