Advertising

The Seattle Times Company

NWjobs | NWautos | NWhomes | NWsource | Free Classifieds | seattletimes.com

The Seattle Times

Business / Technology


Our network sites seattletimes.com | Advanced

Brier Dudley's Blog

Brier Dudley offers a critical look at technology and business issues affecting the Northwest.

Blog Home | E-mail Brier| 206.515.5687 | RSS feeds Subscribe | Twitter feed | Microsoft Pri0 blog

November 10, 2009 at 10:04 AM

Comments (11)     E-mail E-mail article      Print Print view      Share Share

Free Wi-Fi at SeaTac, other airports, thanks to Google

Posted by Brier Dudley

Google's bringing a free perk to 47 airports around the country, offering free WiFi service during the busy holidays. At SeaTac -- homeport for competitors Microsoft and Amazon -- the freebie will continue "indefinitely."

"We're very happy to extend our Holiday Wi-Fi gift to the millions of people who will spend time in airports over the next few months," Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience, said in the release. "We know that this is a very hectic travel season for people, and we hope that free Wi-Fi will make both traveling and connecting with friends and family a little bit easier."

UPDATE: Google added an asterisk to SeaTac - in fine print it now says free service isn't ready there yet and will come in "late November." The rest of the airports received the service yesterday.

Burbank, Calif., is also getting free service indefinitely. The other 45 airports -- and Virgin America flights -- will see Google cover Wi-Fi service fees through Jan. 15.

Users won't have to log in to Google, but the Wi-Fi providers will share usage information with the search company. Here's how this is described in the FAQ:

Q. What kind of information are you collecting about users with the networks?

The network operators collect the information they need to run the network, and Google will have access to some aggregate, non-personally identifiable information.

Here's a list of airports where it's being offered:

Austin (AUS)
Baltimore (BWI)
Billings (BIL)
Boston (BOS)
Bozeman (BZN)
Buffalo (BUF)
Burbank (BUR)
Central Wisconsin (CWA)
Charlotte (CLT)
Des Moines (DSM)
El Paso (ELP)
Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
Fort Myers/SW (RSW)
Greensboro (GSO)
Houston (HOU)
Houston Bush (IAH)
Indianapolis (IND)
Jacksonville (JIA)
Kalamazoo (AZO)
Las Vegas (LAS)
Louisville (SDF)
Madison (MSN)
Memphis (MEM)
Miami (MIA)
Milwaukee (MKE)
Monterey (MRY)
Nashville (BNA)
Newport News (PHF)
Norfolk (ORF)
Oklahoma City (OKC)
Omaha (OMA)
Orlando (MCO)
Panama City (PFN)
Pittsburgh (PIT)
Portland (PWM)
Sacramento (SMF)
San Antonio (SAT)
San Diego (SAN)
San Jose (SJC)
Seattle (SEA)
South Bend (SBN)
Spokane (GEG)
St. Louis (STL)
State College (SCE)
Toledo (TOL)
Traverse City (TVC)
West Palm Beach (PBI)

E-mail E-mail article      Print Print view      Share Share

With all the tax dollars used to support the Port of Seattle. Why can't they just provide this for free? How much could it cost? $1000/month....  Posted on November 10, 2009 at 11:57 AM by dmpi. Jump to comment
Free? Free? Free? These people are keeping track of you every breath!  Posted on November 10, 2009 at 1:10 PM by mwboy. Jump to comment
Burbank thanks you!  Posted on November 11, 2009 at 6:13 AM by Anti-Skid. Jump to comment

Recent entries

Nov 19, 09 - 11:36 AM
"Dark Void" scores: Brad Pitt buys rights, may star in movie version

Nov 19, 09 - 11:08 AM
Google's free Chrome operating system: Details, video emerge

Nov 19, 09 - 10:55 AM
Startup fever returns? Seattle adds 17 new companies

Nov 19, 09 - 9:47 AM
Microsoft alum grants to Ashesi, TAF & Room to Read

Nov 18, 09 - 6:41 PM
WTIA predictions for 2010: Twitter bashing, Google at $720, MSFT to $40

Advertising

Advertising

 
Most read
Most commented
Most e-mailed
 
 

Advertising

Browse the archives

November 2009

October 2009

September 2009

August 2009

July 2009

June 2009

Extras