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Eircom are now charging for their WiFi access in Dublin airport (and probably other places)

Published by bbt August 4th, 2005 in bernard, internet, irishblogs, personal, wifi

[UPDATE:]

After a few people asking how to connect to the Eircom WiFi in Dublin Airport, I thought I would update this post with more detailed information:

There are four simple steps to eircom hotspot connectivity:

1. Turn on your laptop or PDA. In the network settings for your Wi-Fi (802.11b) wireless broadband card, set the SSID (network name) to eircom.
2. Click on your web browser and the eircom hotspot welcome page will appear.
3. Enter your username and password from your eircom hotspot pre-paid scratchcard or from your subscription account. NB: I have never seen these prepaid scratch cards in Dublin airport. They may be there but, you will probably have to buy credit with a credit card.
4. Click ‘enter’ and away you go.

======


This morning in Dublin airport, going to Bad Zwischenahn, we were waiting in the departure gate, I thought I’d have some time to do some web browsing….

Opening my browser, I found I was redirected to the Eircom WiFi capture page…not unusual I say…until I try to then go to another page….and no I can’t.
Herm….Eircom are now charging for the WiFi access at their hotspots in Dublin airport (and also probably at other locations).

If you have a business Eircom DSL account, your user/pass will also work at Eircom WiFi hotspot locations. I must get me one of those ;) Its an extra €10 for access to the Eircom hotspot network.

[UPDATE]

Damien Mulley and Bernie both left comments…

——
Damien Mulley says: “It’s a tenner extra a month if you have a business DSL account for all eircom hotspots. They now have an exclusive deal with Dublin Airport so they are the sole supplier of Wifi.”
——
Damien is right when he says this. Eircom made a deal with Dublin airport (or was it vice-versa??) allowing only Eircom to peddle wireless Internet in Dublin Airport.

——
Bernie asked: “What would happen if a Food Court merchant simply plugged his own WiFi box and let it open to all comers?”
——

The answer to that Bernie is that Dublin Airport would tell them to shut it, or push off. I remember reading an article in the SBP about Bitbuzz trying to get their wireless service into a possible customers premises (who was a tenant in Dublin airport).

Alex French of Bitbuzz was quoted in the article as saying:

“It’s blatantly anti-competitive,” said Alex French, chief operating officer of Bitbuzz.
“It’s the same as if I owned an office block and told the corporate tenants that they were obliged to use the broadband company that I did a deal with for the building.”

“…..executives in the DAA said that Bitbuzz and other operators would be allowed to operate within the airport, as long as they used Eircom’s infrastructure.”

I think the important point here is Eircom’s infrastructure. If Bitbuzz brought DSL in on someone else’s infrastructure (be that copper/wireless/satellite…whatever) would the Airport allow them to use that? Interesting point maybe…

“Following careful consideration of all options for the provision of wireless Lan services at Dublin Airport, and based on the experience of other airports and large public buildings, Dublin Airport Authority has opted for a single, integrated WLan infrastructure as the optimal way to provide these services to its tenants, customers and passengers,” said a spokesman for the airport.

I don’t know if I agree with the DAA guy or not. I mean, it does make sense for the DAA to go with one single integrated WLAN infrastructure for the whole airport (as Hamburg and AFAICS all other German airports). It also allows easier roaming agreements between the other airports which is fundamentally necessary to the success of payed WiFi access (whats the point of having a dozen account on different WLAN networks? A slight waste of money).

BUT they should allow tenants to install their own WiFi APs if they choose. I guess behind it all its still down to business. I would not mind paying for WiFi access in Dubline airport *IF* it was super cheap (almost as cheap as going into an Internet cafe), and worked in more than one airport (like I hope is the idea in the Irish airports)

French said: “We want to offer the thing for little or free. Eircom’s prices will be much higher: they’ll be the same kind of airport prices that you get with other goods and services.”

He’s not half wrong there! A meal for two (nice, edible, hot, and tasty in Hamburg airport costs about €15, Dublin….well you’d get two smelly stale sandwiches for that!)

10 Responses to “Eircom are now charging for their WiFi access in Dublin airport (and probably other places)”  

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  1. 1 Damien Mulley Aug 4th, 2005 at 3:28 pm

    It’s a tenner extra a month if you have a business DSL account for all eircom hotspots. They now have an exclusive deal with Dublin Airport so they are the sole supplier of Wifi.

  2. 2 Bernie Goldbach Aug 4th, 2005 at 4:06 pm

    What would happen if a Food Court merchant simply plugged his own WiFi box and let it open to all comers?

  3. 3 Shane O'Sullivan Aug 30th, 2005 at 12:42 am

    Hi there. Have no idea if anyone will read this but here goes. I work at Dublin airport for one of the companies based there. At night I used to take my laptop up to the Anna Livia suite and sit outside and use its wifi hotspot. It was great, free very fast broadband for as long as i liked. I knew eicom had a service which you could also use for free (for a while) but it was much slower so I didnt bother with it. The other night i poped up to get a pretty big download and all i could find was a bloody Eircom login page and a second locked signal. It seems that the Anna livia free hotspot is now gone. I was pretty pissed off and I was just freeloading. I can only imagine how annoyed international businessmen will be when the find out its 3 euro for 30mins.

  4. 4 Alex French Sep 1st, 2005 at 10:02 am

    The Anna Livia Wi-Fi was disabled after DAA wrote to all the tenants instructing them to disable all Wi-Fi devices prior to the eircom launch. Whether this is legal or not is the subject of some speculation. I have been told by DAA reps that this also covers ad-hoc Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi PoS terminals (some chip & pin credit card swipes).

    The same issue was ruled on by the FCC some time ago, coming down squarely in favour of the tenants who wanted to provide their opwn Wi-Fi. The FCC is currently examining another similar case in the US.

    The matter is now the subject of a Competition Authority investigation in Ireland.

    Thanks,

    Alex

  5. 5 Evert Bopp Sep 8th, 2005 at 10:47 am

    I was in Dublin airport last week and noticed that according to the signs “I was in an Eircom wifi zone”. Whipped out the trusty pda fired it up, connected to the network and opened a browser.
    All I got was a page asking me to enter my username & password. Any information as to how to procure this information was sadly missing.
    Having dealt with Eircom before I tried the trusty “admin/admin” combo but unfortunately that didn’t work.

    It was only days later when flying out again that I noticed a little sign stuck on the side of a bin that explained that I should change my SSID to “eircom” before attempting to connect. I just wondered how old that sign was….

    Anyway, no luck with wireless in Dublin airport so far…

    E.

  6. 6 James Jan 8th, 2006 at 9:42 pm

    Hi there! I have a terrible doubt…here we go: How can i get to wi fi in Dublin airport? I have no idea about so please if anyone could give me a clue…. Thanks

  7. 7 bbt Jan 8th, 2006 at 10:21 pm

    Hi there Jaime,

    Yes you can get WiFi in Dublin airport.

    When you are there, you can do the following:

    1. Turn on your laptop or PDA. In the network settings for your Wi-Fi (802.11b) wireless broadband card, set the SSID (network name) to eircom.
    2. Click on your web browser and the eircom hotspot welcome page will appear.
    3. Enter your username and password from your eircom hotspot pre-paid scratchcard or from your subscription account. Also you can buy credit with a credit card. The pre-paid scratchcards are not availoable in the airport as far as I know
    4. Click ‘enter’ and away you go.

    I hope this helps. If you need any more help, please let me know!

    gracias y buen viaje!

    bernard

  8. 8 keith doyle Apr 2nd, 2006 at 4:05 pm

    was just wondering how 2 set up wi fi for dublin airport use as i spend a lot o time there due 2 delays . thanks for the simple expalanation ill up date you later in week if it goes ok , thanks a million .. keith doyle .

  9. 9 Plamen Panov Jul 14th, 2007 at 5:37 am

    I can’t even get an ip address on my laptop because eircom’s DHCP is not working… So I cant even get to this first page… wanderfull

  10. 10 a pissed off customer Sep 27th, 2007 at 11:26 pm

    i think Dublin airport is a fucking JOKE and nothing but a complete disgrace. i am embarrassed every time i see foreign travelers arriving there and feel like apologizing to each and every one of them on behalf of the irish race for the discgraceful facilities they are forced to endure AND pay for.

    i have spent LOTS of time there and you are ripped off either for food, wifi -or even the shitty pay as you go internet computers- not to mention the sometimes offensive and downright rude attitude of most of the staff there. it has to be one of the WORST airports i have EVER travelled to - and ive been to a few trust me- and NO amount of restoration and paintings will change that. if i NEVER have to spend another hour in dublin airport i would thank my lucky stars.

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