Airports Starting To Notice WiFi

Slowly, but surely, it looks like airports are getting around to installing WiFi. Every time I travel I find that airports that used to be WiFi-free now seem to be WiFi-enabled. It's still not everywhere, and it often costs quite a bit (especially since I'm usually just sitting there for half an hour or so until boarding, and they want to charge you for 24 hours), but it's showing up. What's going to be interesting, however, is whether or not more competition reaches airport WiFi. The theory always was that airports could price gouge, because there would be no competition and there's a captive audience. However, there are different players who can offer WiFi which could lead to competition. There's the airport itself, each of the airlines and any of the retailers in the airport. The other thing that will be interesting is whether or not there's competition across airlines. Already, JetBlue tries to offer free WiFi at certain airports, which makes the idea of flying JetBlue more appealing than some other airlines. If other airlines realize that the cost of providing free WiFi is quite low compared to the benefit of happier customers more likely to choose their airline, then maybe free airport WiFi will catch on much faster.

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