Denver International Airport – DEN – offers free WIFI throughout the Airport Terminal Complex. Although they ask you view a 30 second ad spot this is hardly unreasonable given the cost savings of about $10 over the pay for WIFI airport installations.
I flew out via BWI this morning and although I really enjoyed the city of Baltimore, I would have had a great impression if they provided ad supported WIFI at the Airport.
This SILLY article suggests several unlikely scenarios where on board WIFI, a superb innovation coming to several airlines, will be a nuisance. Loud talking on phones? Porn surfers? Well, maybe, but I think this is one of the *billions* of examples where having more broadband access makes a better, not worse, world. Has he bothered to note how much these things are problems at airports with free WIFI like Las Vegas or Portland, Oregon? They are NOT problems.
Looking for the gray cloud on the silvery lining of ubiquitous broadband reminds me of the early days of the internet (ahhh – those were the days back in, what….the 1990s?) when people would explain to me how they didn’t really need email addresses and business websites because this was a passing fad or a “tech thing”. It didn’t help much to explain that the internet is not about technology, rather it is about people, and that they’d be online very soon. Now of course everybody is online, but the reporters are explaining to us (again) how all this technology puts us all at great social and personal peril.
No, it doesn’t. Get over it, and move on. You cannot cheer enough for innovation and ubiquitous broadband. We’ll have it eventually and it’s better to have it sooner not later.
Hmmm – speaking of Airlines and Airports here’s my Airport Codes website.
Techdirt notes that the USA Today title “ATT Flings cellphone network wide open” is quite a bit of hype given that it’s been open for 3 years. Although the article itself notes that this is really nothing big and new, it is an indication that many of the wars are now faught on the marketing battlefields and not the technological ones.
Also yet another sign that titles to grab attention are becoming increasingly misleading, especially in the blog world. Even the title of this post is – frankly – somewhat misleading, as was my recent suggestion about Andrew Seybold’s competence during a recent PBS interview, for which he just took me to task in his newsletter.
But hey I’m in elite company – he’s also pissed at Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt for suggesting that physical limitations on the wireless spectrum won’t post insurmountable challenges to the coming internet convergence.
This story is just in from Business Week about early adoption of new internet protocol IPv6 in Harrisonburg, VA. That’s great because I’m in Bridgewater / Harrisonburg every other year for our big Glick Family reunion and it’ll be fun to follow the story and maybe check out the service next year when I’m in the lovely Shenandoah Valley.
A German Artificial Intelligence lab is working on a travel information network that will use on board navigation to alert drivers to trouble down the road. Working in real time the system would alert drivers just a few minutes down the road to dangers ahead. As autos get smarter and transportation info networks evolve we should see a lot of benefits. Traffic congestion could be reduced substantially in metro areas simply by providing “early warning” to commuters via websites and alternative routing using on board navigation systems. Rural problems tend to arise from weather problems and this type of information is already flowing online, though it’ll really be useful when drivers can easily access this information from their cars. An example is Oregon’s TripCheck website which displays road cams and conditions information and Yahoo’s integration of mapping and traffic information for some metro areas.
SmartKom Website (warning – this odd site is NOT the way to write for a non-technical audience, or even for a technical one?)
Kim Search Comments and discussion – click here
This effort is very interesting. I’m highlighting notes from a Jeff Barnard A.P. article:
Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski wants the state to explore ways of helping local agencies better communicate and coordinate during rescue efforts.
The governor also is concerned that county sheriff’s departments, which are responsible for conducting search and rescue operations in Oregon, may not be funded adequately, spokeswoman Anna Richter-Taylor said.
“Maybe what we need to do is to look a little bit broader and to see if there’s a different relationship, a partnership between the state and the counties, so that we can help the counties in some of these operations,” Kulongoski told Oregon Public Broadcasting.
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Kulongoski’s spokeswoman said the governor wanted to review after-incident reports to figure out where the state can better support efforts on the ground by the local communities.
“Whether it is communications, helping establish a system of centralized communications, or around equipment, the state wants to do everything it can to be supportive,” she said from Salem.
Kulongoski’s budget for 2007 includes $561 million to establish the Oregon Wireless Interoperability Network, Richter-Taylor said.The money would go toward building 54 communications towers around the state to allow first-responders from state, local and federal agencies involved in emergency operations to talk to each other.
Related: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,69234-0.html
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After a great and cozy Thanksgiving with relatives in Minnesota we are heading home. I’m enjoying the free WIFI at PDX Portland which seems to have a good connection regardless of location in the terminal building – I’m way at the end and downstairs and it’s fine here at the Gate e6 waiting area.
A great post by Paul K, who looks spookily like Adam L, with some travel tips. I liked the one about parking yourself outside of an airport lounges for a hit of WIFI access, though if you traveling in more enlighted places like PDX Portland Oregon or MFR Medford Oregon notice that there is WIFI throughout much of the Airport and is … free.
In a little known study – in fact unknown study – it was found that God actually blesses free WIFI Airports with fewer accidents, less terrorism, no crying babies, and happier travelers.
Here at the Daily Grind in Harrisonburg, VA I’m enjoying a robust internet connection, sipping some robust coffee, and uploading a few pix to Flickr. The big reunion starts tomorrow in Bridgewater, but Mom and I are already enjoying the great hospitality of Aunt Doris and Uncle Joe who live in a beautiful brick house perched on a hill near the middle of town
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No post from Chicago’s ORD because despite their HUGE signs promoting WIFI they … charge $6.95 per session. Unlike Oregon where PDX and MFR have free WIFI, proving that Oregon remains one of the geat states in the union.
I don’t have much information about the economics of Airport WIFI, but I think ad based models are going to prove much stronger since even those of us who can afford to pay usurous wifi fees…won’t do it.
Joe Duck 