"Philadelphia Airport Experiments with Free Wi-Fi"

Friday, Sepyember 8, 2006

Philadelphia Airport Experiments with Free
By Glenn Fleishman
The Wi-Fi Networking News


The airport authority will offer no-cost Wi-Fi in the food court: The rest
of the airport remains a for-fee operation at $7.95 per day, operated by
AT&T (formerly under AT&T Wireless, before the Cingular acquisition). The
head of aviation for the city gave away the goods when he noted that
connections are now 10,000 per month, double that of a year ago. A maximum
of $80,000 per month in revenue for a system that surely cost millions to
build and probably tens of thousands to operate each month is fairly paltry.
And revenue is probably far below $80K because of roaming, in which AT&T
will see quite a bit below $7.95. 

Free makes sense in this equation because reducing the cost of collections
and marketing reduces overall recurring operating expenses by a large
factor. Increasing passenger satisfaction brings in more travelers who would
then choose air over rail or car because they could get work done while
waiting for flights. An addition passenger brings in several dollars (or
more) of fees for the airport where their share of Wi-Fi revenue is probably
substantially lower. Placing free service in the food court also increases
revenue for concessionaires, which in turn produces more tax and franchise
revenue for the airport. 

(On a math-related front, the city's aviation chief said usage was "growing
exponentially," but doubling in a year is an arithmetic progression by most
definitions of both words unless it doubles again this year or doubled from
the year before last.)

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