Given the financial woes facing U.S. carriers, few have the resources right now to invest in wi-fi; most will probably wait for Verizon to launch an in-flight wi-fi service that makes use of its existing Airfones network, sometime in 2005. Rail operators, meanwhile, are beginning to take a hard look at the wireless Web. In Northern California, Canada and Britain, train companies are testing or preparing to launch their own wi-fi services.

Take, for example, the wi-fi car on the Altamont Commuter Express, which runs between Stockton, Calif., and San Jose. The service makes use of satellites for incoming Web traffic, but to keep costs down, it uses the nearest cellular network for outgoing. There are a few dead zones where you can't connect at all (a tunnel, a mountain pass), and connection delays can cause virtual private network (VPN) connections to time out. Still, users say they are grateful for any opportunity to stay connected on their way to work.

Kirk Van Katwyk, a software developer who lives in Tracey, Calif., says having Net access during the 90 minutes he spends on the train twice a day means he can get a head start in the morning and focus on the kids as soon as he arrives home at night. "I have dial-up at home, so I'm used to slow connections," he says, "and you get a feel for where it's spotty, so you plan around it. Because it's free, I think we can't complain."

LimoLiner, a luxury bus service between Boston and New York City, added wi-fi a few months ago, hoping to lure some business away from the air shuttle. But the service can be painfully slow, mainly because the wi-fi network onboard uses a cellular link to reach the Internet—for both downloads and uploads—and the cell networks along its travel route have not yet been upgraded for high-speed data.

They will be soon. Verizon, for example, is in the midst of rolling out its Broadband Access network nationally, but so far it's up only in Las Vegas, San Diego and Washington. The service promises up to 700 kbps—several times faster than what I'm getting here in the back of Frank's Lincoln. When all this bandwidth becomes widely available to LimoLiner, Carey cars and other roving hot spots, experts say, mobile wi-fi will be a lot more compelling—consumers might even be willing to pay for it.

Or they might not have a choice. Right now most mobile wi-fi services are free, but that will change as public transportation agencies look to commercial wireless-service providers like Sprint and T-Mobile (which does Starbucks' wi-fi) to take over. Three commuter-ferry runs serving Seattle, scheduled to have wi-fi trials under way by year's end, hope to have a brand-name provider onboard next summer.

Those who can't wait for wi-fi on the move can subscribe directly to a cell carrier's data service. But it's generally more expensive: Verizon charges $80 a month for Broadband Access, plus $149 for the modem. Wi-fi is more economical and accessible—especially as it's built into more and more laptops and pdas. And it couldn't come a moment too soon. Security checkpoints and choked up highways have made traveling a drag. Wi-fi just might smooth the ride.

—With reporting by Chris Taylor/San Francisco

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