"Should you pay for Wi-Fi? Airports explore tiered service"

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Should you pay for Wi-Fi? Airports explore tiered service
By Harriet Baskas
USA TODAY


For years, one of the top if not the top amenity on many road warriors' wish
lists has been free Wi-Fi at the airport.

Slowly but surely, it's happening.

Take a look at the USATODAY.com Airport Guides, airport websites, and
various commercial and user-generated Wi-Fi directories. You'll see there
are now hundreds of U.S. airports offering travelers complimentary wireless
Internet access. 

San Francisco? Free. Orlando? Free. Seattle, Sacramento and San Jose? Free,
free, free.

Washington's Dulles and National airports? As of April, 2011, free as well. 

Free Wi-Fi sounds great. But during heavy usage times at some airports,
service often slows down. And some free airport Wi-Fi has strings. Most
often, it's in the form of advertising a user must view before getting
online.

At Denver International Airport, "Sometimes it's a session sponsorship, such
as a video and then users are directed to the internet," said DIA
spokesperson Laura Coale. "Sometimes it is banner ads."

At Boston's Logan International Airport, where 198,000 free Wi-Fi sessions
were logged during May, travelers must click through to a second screen
before they see the button offering free Wi-Fi. "The user agrees to watch a
short commercial or take a survey to gain access to the free site," said
airport spokesperson Mathew Brelis, "That times out after an hour and they
need to log back on again." 

There remain some holdouts. Notable among airports that only offer paid
Wi-Fi (outside of airline club lounges) are Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
International Airport, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Newark
Liberty International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and JFK, except for
JetBlue's Terminal 5, where complimentary Wi-Fi is offered as an amenity by
the airline. There's a plan underway to provide free Wi-Fi at Los Angeles
International Airport within a year.

Is a little Wi-Fi too little? 

At some airports that cannot yet swing free Wi-Fi financially or
contractually, there is a new model: hybrid, or tiered, service.
Complimentary Wi-Fi with limited time and, often, limited bandwidth is
available, but for a fee travelers can also choose more secure, robust and
unlimited service. 

Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City offers travelers 20 minutes of
complimentary Wi-Fi. In Houston, travelers get 45 minutes of complimentary
Wi-Fi at both Hobby Airport and George Bush Intercontinental airports. 

"Some revenue needs to be generated by Boingo, our wireless vendor, to cover
the costs of the Wi-Fi system," explains Houston Airports spokesperson
Marlene McClinton, "And charges for upgraded, faster downloads and beyond 45
minutes help."

"The airport is weighing the possibility of offering entirely free Wi-Fi,"
said McClinton, "But a timeline and strategy are still being discussed." 

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport has had some form of paid Wi-Fi
available since 2000, but in May it began offering travelers a complimentary
30-minute session. Once the free session expires, a customer must wait 24
hours for another, find one of the airport's free internet kiosks, or
purchase premium access from the airport's Wi-Fi provider, Boingo Wireless,
which has roaming agreements with a variety of partners. 

"Austin's airport has different customer groups," said spokesman Jim
Halbrook. "Our business travelers need and pay for a premium Wi-Fi product.
The 30-minute complimentary Wi-Fi sessions are a convenient amenity for
casual users," he said. "It's our way of fulfilling the needs of very
different travelers."

Cast Your Vote

Nashville International Airport is currently evaluating its Wi-Fi options.
During the winter, the airport complemented paid airport-wide Wi-Fi with 20
minutes of sponsored Wi-Fi in the Meeter/Greeter areas and in the food
court. 

"We are still determining the impact of the promotion to our business
model," said airport spokesperson Emily Richard. "Airport officials are
studying how to continue to offer a complimentary service to customers that
desire it and a level of service and security for those customers who
require it." 

For now, sponsored, complimentary Wi-Fi continues to be offered in the food
court. 

Why just the food court? 

"Anecdotal studies say free Wi-Fi may have an overall negative effect on
airport revenue," explains Boingo Wireless spokesman Christian Gunning. "If
people are watching a movie on-line they're not walking around the airport
shopping or spending money in the food court." 

Do travelers care? 

Karen Marmolejo, a career/life coach in Sacramento, won't pay for Wi-Fi at
an airport, but is grateful when free access is offered. "Generally I don't
need access to the internet for more than 20 minutes anyway as there are
many things I can do on my laptop that doesn't require me to be online," she
said.

But Forrester Research travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt said hybrid
Wi-Fi "is a way for airports to avoid building out the infrastructure to
support travelers. It is cheap - and annoying. Shame on them."

Annoying or not, hybrid Wi-Fi plans at airports may be sticking around. 

"Consumers are familiar with these kinds of policies where the heaviest
users pay higher fees," said Amy Cravens, senior analyst for In-Stat. "The
tiered pricing model has its place in the hotspot market, particularly in
airports where the amount of time spent on the network varies so greatly."

Outside airports, many travelers are already making those choices. 

A survey by travel research organization YPartnership found that 67% of
frequent travelers have had a bad experience with free Internet while on the
road. "Nearly half of those respondents are willing to pay for Internet.
They just want fast service to get their work done and to access the
Internet for entertainment," said David Garrison, CEO of iBAHN, the provider
of internet service at 300,000 hotel rooms worldwide. 

"[T]he explosion in the use of photos and videos - think Facebook, You Tube
and devices like iPad - has caused the amount of data per session to go up
50% per year. So free is not free and it's getting more expensive every
year."

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