Can I get a connection? (Part 1)

In the month of July, I embarked upon an ambitious endeavor - travel every weekend. Already an active traveler, this plan put me on par with many of my consulting friends who travel weekly.

Three weeks in - I've spent a lot of time living out of a suitcase, sitting in airports, taking taxis or ride shares, mastering the art of sleeping vertically and searching for WiFi. That last point has been particularly painful for me.

One of the luxuries of my job is that I can work nearly everywhere - just give me a laptop, cell phone and an internet connection and I am good to go. Take one of those three items away and I become unmoored.

Unfortunately, WiFi is not deployed equally across airports. It's a fact I knew before my whirlwind travel schedule, what is surprising, however, is the directions airports and airlines have taken in their approach to WiFi.

So this week, I've decided to do a double click on WiFi across domestic US airports. Then next week, I'll explore WiFi on airplanes.

The WiFi Airport Landscape

From my travels, I've boiled internet connectivity in airports down to three models -

Free

Sponsored

Paywall

Free WiFi

Some airports - like Nashville - boast they offer "free WiFi." I love free but that usually comes with a price. As I've recently learned that price is often connectivity. Specifically, there's too many people on the "free WiFi" that I cannot access any of the websites I need.

As Travel + Leisure pointed out in 2017, airports expect to see a 5-7% increase in the number of travelers. Those travelers come with devices that crave connecting to WiFi networks.

Not only that, travelers like myself bring more than one device and have different data needs - some simply want to answer emails while others want to watch high definition content. As I composed this blog, I had 3 devices in my possession - two phones and a computer - fighting for space on that WiFi network and an episode of The Great British Baking Show downloading.

Just like freeways, WiFi connections have limited capacity. When you continue to add devices (or cars), the amount of available speed decreases (i.e. the number of lanes available). This often leads to congested networks (i.e. too many cars on the road - traffic jams) where no one is happy.

For airports like Nashville, it's tough for them to keep up with the increased volume. In the past decade, I've flown into this airport close to fifty times. I've seen it grow from a sleepy airport to the fourth fastest growing airport in North America. In 2018, the airport serviced 16 million passengers - a 13% year over year increase.

UPDATE 8/4 - Naturally on my visit to Nashville last week, the WiFi had been upgraded and now worked much better.

The Verdict on Free WiFi

In theory, free WiFi is great but in practice and amidst my travels - it's terrible. Every time I see the words "Free WiFi" in an airport, I steer clear. I'm better off using my phone as a mobile hot spot to send my emails and cellular data to download my video or music content.

Even worse, I expect little to change among these airports who offer it for free. It's a significant burden to add equipment and speed to service customers (plus employees of the airport) and typically, not an area many airports focus on since customers can fall back on cellular connections. Ultimately, it will take a lot of unhappy customers to force change here.

As an aside - airports are not the only institutions who fall into this trap - you'll see the same issue with hotels and businesses.

Sponsored WiFi

A favorite airport of mine is Dallas Fort-Worth (DFW). It's not just the layout or the number of destinations it services - it has working WiFi!

Unlike Nashville, their WiFi is not completely free. Although the airport will advertise it offers "complimentary WiFi" - for many customers - it's sponsored WiFi.

What's the difference? At DFW, you can connect to the internet but it comes at a price - your eyeballs + an email address. As their website indicates, in exchange for access to the WiFi, "some users may experience watching advertisement video opportunities" - basically, you agree to watch sponsored commercials once you supply your email address.

Although I'm a huge privacy advocate and detest ads as much as the next person, I prefer this approach. There's two reasons.

First, when WiFi is sponsored that means someone else besides the airport is paying for it. At DFW Airport, the official sponsor is AT&T. You see their name when you connect to the internet.

Like most companies, when you sponsor something you want it to work. Going back to AT&T or Verizon, no telecommunications company wants to advertise their name next to something that is sub-par. (It's comparable to Michael Jordan not wearing his own sneakers while playing basketball). In these cases, the sponsors have a vested interest in ensuring the product (WiFi) works and maintaining it.

Secondly, and I fully expect some readers to disagree, the number of advertisements for these airports tend to be <3 minutes in exchange for near unlimited access. Although I expect many travelers to find that cumbersome or simply not worth it - when I have an hour plus layover in DFW, watching ads is a great trade off for WiFi that works and is high speed.

Some travelers may be unwilling to fork over their email address - from my perspective, it's easy to unsubscribe from something. And I'd rather have that power than poor WiFi.

The Verdict on Sponsored WiFi

If you cannot tell - I'm a fan of Sponsored WiFi because it’s a win-win situation. I get my internet and can do my work in peace and the company gets name recognition.

To be fair, it's not an ideal solution for travelers with short layovers or ones without an email address (which should be a relatively small population).

Paywall WiFi

Unsurprisingly, the third category for airport WiFi is the great paywall - i.e. when a user pays a fee to access the WiFi network.

The key difference between sponsored and paywall WiFi is who pays. With sponsored WiFi a third party finances WiFi. In this case, the consumer directly pays for the WiFi. In my travels, the paywall provider I've frequented the most is Boingo, a company founded back in 2001 specializing in heavily trafficked locations like airports, stadiums and real estate properties.

Boingo's business model is straightforward for consumers with two tiers of service - basic and premium.

The basic tier provides an abbreviated time (~30-60 minutes) of service for free. Once the user reaches their allotted time, they are given the option to pay for longer time and faster speeds.

Note - Stealthy travelers can elongate their sessions on the free tier by opening an incognito window or a different browser.

Basic tier users beware - pricing and times differ at airports. I still scratch my head over why WiFi will cost $6.95 in Chicago O'Hare for an hour whereas an identical speed and duration will cost $2.95 at Minneapolis/St. Paul International.

Paying users have two options - a onetime day pass or a monthly subscription fee. The benefits of subscribing to a monthly pass can be very attractive - Boingo, in particular, automatically connects you when in their WiFi areas - meaning when your flight lands at a serviced airport, your device will automatically switch to WiFi. Frequent travelers (i.e. consultants, weekend warriors, etc.) usually opt for this route.

Looking back, I should have purchased a Boingo pass given the multitude of hours I've spent in airports this month. It would have saved me a lot of headaches and tethering...

To be clear, Boingo does not have a lock on the market. Another option where the WiFi paywall is exercised is airline lounges who cater to the same crowd of frequent travelers. Delta Sky Miles, United or American Airlines' Admiral Club all offer complimentary WiFi to cardholders or top fliers. It may not be the main draw but it is a fantastic perk - one that I actually exercised two months ago when I desperately needed WiFi and a quiet place to work. My solution was a day pass to the United Lounge. Was it expensive? Yes. Did it fulfill its purpose? Yes.

The Verdict on Paywall WiFi

Do I love it? No. Am I willing to pay for it? Possibly. Do I think there's a market here? Yes.

Although Boingo will make the most revenue from users willing to pay for service a year in advance (i.e. frequent fliers), they need to cultivate semi-frequent fliers (myself included). Similar to streaming services, if they convince me the fee is nominal enough (i.e. <$10-15/month), as a user, I'll be more inclined to sign-up and not cancel.

For reference, Boingo's monthly rate is $14.99 with a cancel anytime premise.

Another attractive aspect is their service extends beyond airports and can be utilized elsewhere.

Wrap-Up

Here's where it gets interesting. You'd think there would be some type of trend among airports on their approach to WiFi - i.e. larger, metropolitan airports prefer sponsored or paywall over free. And that's not exactly what you find.

Speed measure company Ookla examined the top 5 airports with the fastest internet in the United States in January 2019. Take a look at the results below and notice there's a healthy mix between the three options.

• Denver International - Free

• Philadelphia International - Sponsored by AT&T

• Seattle-Tacoma International - Free

• Dallas/Fort Worth International - Sponsored

• Miami International - Paywall

Courtesy of Trip Savvy

Yet compare this to the bottom five airports and you'll see a different trend…

Minneapolis/St. Paul International - Paywall

McCarran International - Free

San Francisco International - Free

Orlando International - Free

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International - Free*

Courtesy of Trip Savvy

*Atlanta deployed an in-house network

Although there's no clear-cut winner amongst the top five, it is clear that free WiFi ranks in the bottom when it comes to speed and sponsored and paywall hover near the top. It will be interesting to continue monitoring airports in the coming future and how each deploys their networks.

In summation, though, I'd say that WiFi adheres to the old expression "you get what you pay for." So for the foreseeable future, I'll continue to take advantage of sponsored WiFi or invest in a Boingo account.

Let me know your thoughts and what's your WiFi solution while traveling.

Happy Travels!