RunningWithBulls.com - The curse of Sanfermin

I posted about Eircom WiFi in Dublin airport (and also other airports) airports a while ago..and got a few responses.

Recently an employee of a Dublin Airport tenant company posted a comment saying:

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.

Yup, that now seems to be the case Shane. Is there any airlines, other then Aer Lingus with their dumb WiFi service (or is that still in operation?), offering *any* type of WiFi in Dublin? If you were able to let me know I’d appreciate it.

Alex French (of Bitbuzz) posted a comment to follow up of Shane’s comment:

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).

Alex

Alex is unfortunately right (as in his facts are correct!). In the US, earlier this month, in particular Logan airport, MA, has been in wrangles with Continental Airlines over usage of WiFi, both free and PPV.

The airline, in their niceness has been offering customers free WiFi. Pretty nice of them. But the airport authorities (Massachusetts Port Authority) does want this, apparently because it “”presents an unacceptable risk” to other communication equipment.”

Which of course is a load of bollix. What unacceptable risk is free WiFi going present that $7.95-per-day service WiFi is not? None of course.

[Sideline: sometimes I wish when they ridiculous claims come up, that the other party would require, or even better government required, technical and scientific proof of these stupid claims. But of course in the states they would probably come with “aiding international terrorists by providing free WiFi”. I think paying $7.95 isn’t going to really put off a suicide bomber from blowing the shit out of himself and the contents of an airport. Sorry, but I really don’t.]

The real problem, according to a source close to the situation, is that Continental’s free Wi-Fi competes with Logan’s $7.95-per-day service. (When the fark do you spend a FULL day in an airport?!)

There’s the biscuit Joe. Logan don’t want to be screwed out of their PPV WiFi, by free WiFi supplied by Continental.

The officials from Logan actually say what they will do to get the AP removed:

In a July 5 letter to Continental about the issue, Massport officials claimed that Continental is violating its lease by offering the free service and said that if the airline does not remove its antenna, the state agency will take “all necessary steps to have the antenna removed.”

Thems is some pretty strong words.

Important point to be teased out are:

* Wi-Fi is in an unlicensed band. That means anyone can operate anything in that band as long as it complies with with the FCC’s Part 15 rules, which all WLAN equipment does.
   Once Continental’s kit is standard then thats 1 point for them

* If Continental uses wired transmission facilities owned by the airport, the airline doesn’t have a case.
   If Continental use Logan’s ethernet/network cables, then thats 1 point for Logan. If Continental are determined to keep their free AP, they would probably have to get a WiFi ISP to beam it into their offices. Then they can do what they want..once the below point wasn’t true.

* Given that landowners also own the airspace above their property, Massport could claim ownership of the air rights. If the wireless use is not mentioned in the current lease, then Continental may have an advantage until the lease is renewed.
   If Logan own the airspace above the offices, they Continental would be screwed. Its amazing, now we’re talking about owning the air!

Getting back to the Dublin dispute, Alex and Bitbuzz (and their potential clients in Dublin Airport) should probably look closely at the contracts the tenants have agreed to. If things are on their sides, then run with it!

Alex, I hope you guys get to put your WiFi in Dublin Airport. Anyone else that can drive the price down is welcome!