Yesterday after flying out first thing from London to San Francisco on Virgin flight 19, leaving just before 10 AM London time the weather finally caught up with me again. I had gone two months without a weather delay, but this Sunday the luck ran out, as SFO was under heavy fog.
I wasn't worried though. Southwest has those very cushy chairs, with power to boot, and of course SFO is both a Boingo and T-Mobile Hotspot.
I was able to get a lot of work done in the three hours I sat at gate 23. The speeds were rock solid, and other than one connection error about two hours or so online, I had the Mac and iPhone humming using my Boingo and Boingo Mobile accounts.
What's more I found that many people are unaware that Airport WiFi is available. I mean, yes the business traveler does, but I spoke to a few students about Boingo (and T-Mobile) and explained the pricing and what they can do. I got a lot of "that's really cool" and another comment about "value."
What my man on the street research showed me was that airport WiFi is only perceived to be expensive because of the "day" rate models in affect, but once those desiring connectivity more than once in a while do the math they quickly see that $9.99 for Boingo or $7.95 a month for Boingo Mobile is a great value if they go to an airport or coffee shop more than once a month and need to be regularly connected.
I have gone the path of having a mobile broadband connection. I get a connection almost anywhere. For the most part the bandwidth is great. Occasionally it drops off a little, but this i think is mostly in area's that are close to the limit of coverage on 3G service.
Additionally it is always getting better, the service that i have used to have a lot more connection problems, probably 1 in 3 days take a couple of tries to get a connection, not it is more like 1 in 7 or 1 in 10 days i have a connection problem.
Price is reasonable as well $40 a month for 5GB transfer, no time limits.
Posted by: No Fixed Office | March 11, 2009 at 10:58 PM
It figures that in one of the only countries in the world that charges for luggage carts in international airports, they also charge for airport WiFi.
In Hong Kong's airport, WiFi - and luggage carts - are free. The WiFi is provided by the territory's main telco/ISP and presumably they see this as a promotion for their services elsewhere - which includes subscription-based WiFi with hotspots in every phone booth and 7-Eleven.
Posted by: Spike | February 23, 2009 at 06:29 PM