The story (snippet & links below) also says the antenna is around 4 feet x 3 feet and requires direct line of sight to the satellite. Monthly service is $50/month. If you go over your allotment of 10 hours/month, it's $5/hr peak and $2.50 /hr off peak. For $100/month you get unlimited off peak hours.
Well...I think I'll hold off for now. I'm wondering who really really needs internet that badly.
Lance
*****
David Colker Technopolis In-Car Net Access: Spotty and Pricey A satellite-based service will let people link to the Web from their vehicles. But the hardware costs $6,995 and may not work near big buildings.
LAS VEGAS ? At the Consumer Electronics Show ? the annual bacchanal of gadgetry in Las Vegas ? sometimes the technology is more intoxicating than useful.
A case in point: Satellite-based Internet service for cars.
Rolling down the famed Strip in a Ford Explorer last week, I tried out a system developed by RaySat Inc. that sent my mouse clicks and keystrokes directly to a satellite 22,000 miles above the Earth and returned Web pages, e-mail, music and instant messages back down to my laptop. (Don't worry, I wasn't driving.)
The SUV essentially became a roving satellite-transmission platform. Unlike the passive reception of satellite TV and radio, this technology promises to allow consumers to interact directly with a satellite by sending signals into space.
The Consumer Electronics Show was the coming-out party for RaySat's SpeedRay 3000 Internet system, which the Vienna, Va., company has been developing for a couple of years. It uses global positioning system technology to aim its car-top antenna, which looks a bit like an oversize cafeteria tray, at a satellite in geosynchronous orbit. The Internet signal comes down from the satellite and fills the car via a wireless modem hooked up to the antenna.
Full story in the Los Angeles Times Business section (registration required):
formatting link