Even though the EU has given the green light to in-flight cell phone service, and Air France has been testing text-messaging from cell phones since last December, plans for in-flight cell phone service in the U.S. haven’t gone very far due to regulatory opposition from both the FAA and the FCC. Meanwhile, though, this week American Airlines began testing in-flight WiFi service on some transcontinental flights. AA says they won’t filter content, but that they will prevent users from using PC-based VoIP services like Skype. I suspect that the “no filtering” bit will last only as long as it takes for the first passenger to complain about the person next to them watching porn, but we’ll see. I, for one, truly hope they never allow in-flight cell phone service; imagine the six-hour trip from Boston to California with the entire cabin full of business travelers yakking away on their cellphones while watching porn AT THE SAME TIME! The only way I’d get on a plane is if the airline gave free sedatives to everyone so I could at least be unconscious.

Amtrak has always been able to make the claim of having cell-phone service, since trains pass right through the terrestrial cell network like every other land vehicle, so no big whoop there, but Amtrak started offering WiFi on some trains all the way back in 2004. Here’s a fairly technical interview with Amtrak’s head Network Architect about the challenges they faced in pulling together all the pieces they needed to make for a seamless online experience for train riders. This discussion forum thread offers some first-hand accounts of using WiFi on other rail services in Canada and the UK for comparison. Here in Eastern Massachusetts, the MBTA offers WiFi on the Framingham-Worcester commuter rail line, though word is that the service can be spotty due to some dead zones.

Scariest of all, though, is this week’s announcement by Chrysler that ALL of their 2009 models (yes the ones that will be in the dealer showrooms come September) will offer WiFi as an add-on for $500. Vehicles will have built-in wireless routers that will make the entire interior of the car a hotspot with a throughput of 600-800 kbps down (that’s a good deal slower than today’s typical home broadband, but faster than dialup by a significant amount), and will extend up to 50 feet beyond the vehicle. The routers will connect to Chrysler’s UConnect service, which is a combination of WiFi to the end device and cell service to the ISP and will cost $29/month with a one-time $35 activation fee. If you thought drivers yakking on their cell phones while driving was bad, you just wait until people start checking their e-mail while driving. Time to make sure your car insurance is paid up, kids.