In-car Internet hits the road
When Stephen Devine drove with his family from their home in Massachusetts to New York City, he spent two frustrating hours trying to find a place to park his 9-foot-high camper van, which won't fit in most garages.
In the end, his 17-year-old daughter found a place to park online -- and she didn't even have to leave the van to do it.
Devine's van is equipped with TracNet, a system that allows passengers to access the Internet on a vehicle's video screens. Launched in September by Middletown, Rhode Island-based KVH Industries Inc., TracNet brings the Internet to the installed screens in a car, truck, RV or boat. It also turns the entire vehicle into a wireless hot spot, so passengers can use their laptops to go online.
Devine -- who also purchased KVH's satellite TV system, called TracVision, when he bought his camper a month ago -- said the value of in-vehicle Internet became obvious at that moment in New York.
"For me, that just paid for itself, because I was five minutes away from going home," said Devine, of Hanover, Massachusetts.
