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Expensive air
By Paul Venezia | March 10, 2007, 4:42 pm
So I’m sitting in Manchester-Boston airport, loving the free WiFi. Of course, my flight boards in a few minutes, and when I get to O’Hare, I’ll be in a blackhole of T-Mobile WiFi. Since T-Mobile doesn’t have any service in my area, I have no need for an account, so to log on and check my email during a two-hour layover would cost $6.99. Of course that’s for 24 hours of continuous access, and frankly, I would go insane if I was stuck in O’Hare for 24 hours.
I realize that this method reaps financial rewards for T-Mobile, but it’s essentially bilking the connected traveler unless they already have an account. Would it be so hard to offer 20-30 minutes of free WiFi access? Past that, a charge might be in order, but even then, why is this small airport able to offer fast and unobstructed wireless when a major US hub airport has to get another $7 out of me to go with my $4 coffee? Of course airports feed on a captive audience, but that doesn’t mean we should just accept it.
While we’re at it, I’d also like to petition for a ban on repetitive audio displays in the terminal. I had to sit behind one of these monstrosities a few weeks ago, pitching for Green Chicago. Every twenty seconds it would start loudly talking to itself about Green Chicago. The effect was to drive people away from those seats. It actually became a bit of a game — watch someone sit down in these choice seats, live with the aural harassment for a minute or two, then sigh dejectedly and run away. Really made me interested in Green Chicago’s cause, though hardly in the way they intended.
Anyway, kudos to MHT.
UPDATE: So the terminal at O’Hare that served as my holding pen for yet another delayed flight wasn’t T-Mobile. It was Boingo, offered as “Concourse”, and a $6.95 24-hour option was the only one offered aside from a monthly plan.
Maybe it makes some kind of perverse sense, since obviously O’Hare went above and beyond in hiding power outlets from the travelers. When you do happen to locate the stray outlet hidden in a corner or directly underneath a gate counter, there are already a swarm of laptop wielding barbarians there fighting over sips of precious power like it was heroin, desperate to save enough juice to be able to play solitaire on the damn plane. Savages.
Topics: Social Tech |
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