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The Wi-Fi Flight |
| While travelers at Indian airports struggle to hook onto Wi-Fi networks, Google's free Wi-fi services at US airports could be a learning experience for service providers here |
| Mehak Chawla |
| Thursday, November 12, 2009 |
Next time you have to wait for your flight to take off from any USA
airport, you wont have to kill time deciding which service providers to
use. You can now very well access Wi-Fi and browse Internet all for
free, courtesy Google.
Google recently announced that as a "holiday gift," Google Inc. is
sponsoring free Wi-Fi at 47 airports across the US. It started last
week, and runs through Jan. 15. According to Google, this
“gift” is to make the life of travellers a bit more
amusing and easier as the time spent in the airport premises has gone
up substantially after 9/11 due to perked up security procedures.
According to the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), some 100 million
people will pass through the participating airports during the holiday
season and thus benefit from Google's services. With the
hectic schedules and seasonal weather often causing delays, the average
passenger spends some 70 minutes waiting in the airport once they pass
through security, according to FAA figures quoted by Google.
Airports in the scheme include Las Vegas, San Jose, Boston, Baltimore,
Burbank, Houston, Indianapolis, Seattle, Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Orlando,
St Louis and Charlotte.
That makes us think that it would be quite something to have such a
facility in the major airports in India since the average time spent in
the airport here is higher than the US. According to some reports, a
passenger on an average spends close to 100 minutes at the Delhi,
Mumbai and Banglore airports.
Although some airports in the US were providing Wi-fi earlier also, the
trend is yet to kick off in India. Although Delhi airport does boast of
one such facility, so far the users have been unable to access or
utilize it. As a saving grace, the GRPS here is quite efficient.
Close to 95% of all laptops purchased during FY 09 came with built in
Wi-fi, but finding free services in India is a challenge. Recently the
Mumbai International Airport has launched pre-paid WiFi in India. This
project was completed in association with Bharti Airtel, but again it
comes at a cost.
Although cities like Pune and Banglore are known for their Wi-fi
networks, the airports here also dont have free connectivity.
Lets hope that someone like Google looks eastward too!
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