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Internet addicts, take heart: American Airlines says it will be the first U.S. airline to bring inflight internet access to domestic skies.

The airline said Wednesday that it will test the service next year on some Boeing 767-200 jets that mostly fly transcontinental routes.

American will charge a fee for the hookup but said it did not know how much that would be.

American, a unit of AMR Corp., said it signed a memorandum of intent with AirCell LLC to provide the service.

AirCell will build cellular towers throughout the continental United States to transmit the signals. Planes will have three antennas, two on the bottom and one on top.

Notice that there’s a whole lot of future tense in there. “Next year.” “Will build towers.” Where’s the beef?

We’ve been hearing about the buildout of AirCell for well over a year now, and it hits the news about once per quarter. (Scott McCartney’s last piece on it was on April 3 of this year, if you’re keeping track.)

Boeing tried its hand at a satellite-based system, Connexion, but that folded. Maybe AirCell will do better: Inflight internet would be nice on longer domestic flights, and I’m happy to see an American commit to it. But I’ll believe it when I see it.

Thanks to reader Paul, who quips: “No word yet on whether they’re forcing AirCell to change their name to ‘AAirCell.’” (ThAAnks PAAul!) Sorry.

Related:
- Inflight internet moves closer to reality in American airspace
- “No Cellphones” light to be added to aircraft interiors
- It’s official: Boeing pulling the plug on its inflight internet service, Connexion

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