In a bold move toward enabling more airlines to offer in-cabin wireless broadband, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC (News - Alert)) voted on Thursday to explore using new spectrum for air-to-ground broadband service.

The organization voted to open a notice of proposed rulemaking, and sought comments on a proposal to assign 500MHz of 14GHz spectrum for new air-to-ground broadband service.

If acted out, in-flight broadband would share that spectrum with current occupants, including fixed satellite services and some U.S. government agencies.

Available on only about 3000 airplanes worldwide, in-flight broadband service is still not the rule of thumb – and it's not a perfected service. Customers using the service have had negative feedback pertaining to the costliness as well as the slow speed of the connection (hey, you're 40,000 feet above ground; what do you expect?).

This new spectrum would not only make Wi-Fi on planes more common, but it would actually address that user complaint of slow service, offering a quicker alternative.

The new service could also provide competition and drive down costs of existing in-flight service, the commissioner said – so there's the second complaint wiped off the slate.

Flight passengers aren't shy in their desire for in-flight broadband.

“Today’s airline passengers expect the same level of broadband service that is available on the ground,” Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said

Wireless technology companies like Qualcomm (News - Alert), which praised the commission's vote, are working fiercely to meet the demand, and slowly but surely the dream will be realized. Clyburn estimates that by 2021, 15,000 aircraft will offer broadband service

At present, airlines offer broadband through two other bands of spectrum – neither of which is ideal. One band has only 4MHz available and the other is already quite crowded with other services, according to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski (News - Alert).

With this new service based on the 14GHz spectrum, data rates of up to 300Gbps could become an actuality.