Announcing the decision, Boeing chairman, president and chief exec (surely an over-concentration of job titles if there ever was one) Jim McNerney said: “Over the last six years, we have invested substantial time, resources and technology in Connexion by Boeing. Regrettably, the market for this service has not materialised as had been expected.”

Airlines have been slow to sign up for Connexion. Lufthansa, SAS, Japan Airlines, ANA, Singapore Airlines, China Airlines, Korean Air, Asiana Airlines and El Al Israel Airlines were the only ones to start offering the service, although Etihad Airways and Austrian Airlines had signalled their intention to do so in the future. Notable by their absence from this list are the big American airlines and British Airways.

Boeing is now going to have to write off a hefty U$320 million as a result of its decision, some of which will go towards paying early termination payments to its airline customers. That’s an expensive lesson but not one without its precedents. Airlines spent millions installing seatback phones only to find that virtually no-one wanted to use them, in part because the cost was sky-high. I felt the same way about Connexion. Having to pay the best part of fifteen quid to access the internet for the duration of a flight felt expensive, especially as ground based wi-fi prices have been tumbling, often to zero.

Another point is that in-flight wi-fi, and in-flight telephony for that matter, encroaches on what was traditionally downtime. Flights have always been good for catching up on movies and reading. Perhaps we don't really need on-board wi-fi or mobile phones for that matter.

Some airlines insist they will keep broadband on board despite Boeing’s decision. A spokeswoman for Lufthansa, which has the service on 80 per cent of its long-haul services, said: We are confident that Lufthansa FlyNet will be available further on and that our customers are very happy with the broadband connectivity on board.”

But who is going to step in to keep the service going? The other big player in the onboard wireless market, Tenzing, was swallowed up when tech firm SITA set up its OnAir venture with Airbus. OnAir is making very little noise about wi-fi, preferring to talk about mobile telephony. Perhaps 3G will come to be the technology of choice when airborne.