Jet Blue takes the lead

Susan Stellin of the NY Times reports today that:

On Tuesday, JetBlue Airways will begin offering a free e-mail and instant messaging service on one aircraft, while American Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines plan to offer a broader Web experience in the coming months, probably priced at about $10 a flight.

I'm not sure why we haven't seen broad adoption of or a demand for Internet access in the air. It's been 13 years since I had my first AOL account... 11 since I worked for my first "dot com" company. I've got Google on my phone and hundreds of channels on my flat TV, on which, by the way, I can rewind shows that I am watching even as they are being broadcast with the magic of Tivo.

Why then, why, can't I check my email at 35,000 feet?