Public Wi-Fi networks slow to take off at airports

[DevilDog#1]

Tue Mar 1, 8:11 AM ET

By Barbara De Lollis, USA TODAY

Air travelers generally are finding it easier to check e-mail wirelessly, but big airports are adding Wi-Fi hot spots at a slower pace than are other public places.

Mark Bolger, marketing chief for T-Mobile HotSpot, says providing wireless Internet access at airports can be more complicated than at, say, a coffeehouse or hotel.

"Airports are very large entities," he says. "They're governmental bodies. There are just a lot of steps involved with making decisions of this nature." The company provides service for nine U.S. airports and for 110 VIP lounges operated by American, United, Delta and US Airways.


Five years into the rollout of wireless Internet connections in public places, most airline lounges are offering them. The service is slowly becoming more common at gates and in concourses. Users usually need an account with the provider or must pay a fee.


About half of the USA's 30 busiest airports provide Wi-Fi in public areas, according to a USA TODAY survey. All offer it in airline clubs.


David Blumenfeld, vice president at JiWire.com, an online hot-spot directory, says the number of hot spots in public places tripled last year. It's expected to double again this year. Wi-Fi hot spots let multiple users share high-speed Internet connections within a few hundred feet of a special radio device.


The smaller the airport, the fewer radio devices required for full coverage. That's partly why many smaller and midsize airports offer Wi-Fi. Nearly 20 small to midsize airports offer it free. Even tiny airports can offer powerful hot spots for about $500, says Colby Goff, vice president at Boingo Wireless. His company provides service in 14 of the top 30 U.S. airports.


About five years ago, airports were at the forefront of Wi-Fi rollout, along with coffeehouses - notably, Starbucks. Business travelers were the perfect test audience: They carry laptops, they need to stay in touch, and they have an expense account to pay for wireless access. "They've come to expect the convenience of using Wi-Fi everywhere they go," Bolger says.


Wi-Fi use at airports continues to soar. The number of Wi-Fi connections at Dallas/Fort Worth, for instance, runs about 18,000 a month, compared with a scant 50 a month when it was new in 2000, says Pat Gleason, DFW's vice president of airport concessions. T-Mobile has seen more than a 150% increase in its airport traffic year over year, Bolger says.


The average time spent on T-Mobile airport connections is 40 minutes, up from about 30 minutes last year.


Besides checking e-mail at airports, software executive Patrick Ryan of Richardson, Texas, wirelessly transmits pictures of his trip to his kids. He'll send them a picture of a statue, for instance, and they can research it to guess his city of the week.


Sales executive Suzanne Hoffman of Chicago says she lives by Wi-Fi at airports, because she arrives early to avoid any security-related snafus. She has prepaid accounts from T-Mobile and Wayport to make it more likely that she can connect regardless of airport.


She has sent reports, handled school issues for her daughter, paid bills and found hotel rooms on short notice using Wi-Fi.


"I won't consider being without it," she says.


Just one of the top five U.S. airports provides wireless Internet access outside of membership-only airline clubs: No. 4 Dallas/Fort Worth. The other four - Atlanta, Chicago O'Hare, Los Angeles and Phoenix - are in varying stages of rolling out Wi-Fi in public areas.


No. 1 Atlanta (based on scheduled departing seats) will start phasing it in by summer in its public atrium area. No. 3 Los Angeles hopes to offer it by year's end.


Passengers, however, may find that Internet service providers have struck separate deals with airport concessionaires to provide limited Wi-Fi service. Even though LAX, for instance, hasn't hired an airportwide provider, Boingo provides some Wi-Fi in the terminals and around specific restaurants, such as a California Pizza Kitchen.

Fliers should look either for banners in airports or use the Wi-Fi providers' locator software