TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Sides Chosen in Logan WiFi Battle

Sides Chosen in Logan WiFi Battle

Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Tue, 3 Jan 2006 01:15:14 -0500

Sides chosen in Logan WiFi battle
Wireless and airport lobbies join dispute

By Peter Howe, Globe Staff | January 2, 2006

Logan International Airport officials' ongoing quest to ban airline
lounges from offering passengers free WiFi Internet services is
angering a growing array of powerful Capitol Hill lobbying groups, who
say Logan could set a dangerous nationwide precedent for squelching
wireless services.

Already under fire from the biggest airline lobby, the Air Transport
Association, and the manufacturer-backed Consumer Electronics
Association, Logan officials are also coming under new criticism from
the top US wireless lobby, CTIA-The Wireless Association. All three
groups are siding with Continental Airlines Inc., which has asked the
Federal Communications Commission to overturn a Logan order last year
shutting off Continental's WiFi service in its Presidents Club lounge
in Logan's Terminal C.

Soon after activating its own $8-a-day WiFi service in the summer of
2004, the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, ordered
Continental and American Airlines to shut down WiFi services in their
Logan lounges. Massport also ordered Delta Air Lines Inc. not to turn
on a planned WiFi service in its new $500 million Terminal A that
opened last March.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2006/01/02/sides_chosen_in_logan_wifi_battle/

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