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Continental Airlines turns to its prestigious membership: The Presidents Club comprises Continental Airlines flyers willing to pony up hundreds of dollars a year or piles of frequent flyer milers (more likely for heavy-mileage business travelers) to have a quiet, comfortable place to sit. Continental is offering these desirable folk free Wi-Fi in contrast to several other airlines which provide T-Mobile service at a fee for members.
Continental sent around email to this group, which probably includes some relatively influential sorts and at least businesspeople with interest in retaining a critical amenity, asking them to comment on the Boston-Logan conflict. Massport wants Continental’s signal off to avoid a contractual conflict with its designated Wi-Fi provider from whom Continental can purchase service. Continental believes FCC regulations and statements restrict the usage of unlicensed spectrum strictly to the FCC.
Continental states this pretty fairly: We believe Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations give us the right to provide our own seamless service, which is free, and do not require you or us to pay fees to Massport’s vendor to have wireless Internet access in our Presidents Clubs.
Of course, the free part is less relevant: Continental could pay for service and offer it for free. The principle here is whether individual landlords and municipal authorities have the right to restrict use of unlicensed spectrum. The FCC has said no before; Massport is working hard to find reasons to get around that “no,” such as invoking security and interference.
Posted by Glennf at August 18, 2005 8:59 PM
Categories: Air Travel, Regulation
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Continental Airlines is correct in their position that they are allowed to keep their Hostpot up and running. Part 15 of the FCC rules states that you must accept all interference. Perhaps the airport should suggest to their contractor that they choose equipment that can deal with interference better or perhaps engineer their system to be more tollerant to interference. This is why RF Engineeers exist.
I urge the FCC to consider their decision and the outcome of this decision if they side with the airport. At most, this is a case for contract dispute and is not an FCC issue.
Posted by: Glenn Connaughton at August 22, 2005 7:42 AM
I pay $300/yr to belong to the Presidents Club. One of the reasons why I'm willing to do this is the free wifi in the lounges. What with the post-2001 need to be checked-in earlier I end up killing time at airports. Especially when I show up 90 minutes before a flight onnly to waltz through security in a few mimutes. The ability to get online one last time before hours in the air is a huge productivity boost.
If Massport wins, and the decision is replicated across the country then I expect Continental will lose some memberships.
I've also used a Hitachi wifi sip phone to try and make voip calls from their wlan. It worked pretty well in Newark, but I'm not likely to cancel my cellular service any time soon.
Michael
Posted by: Michael at August 19, 2005 7:45 AM
Continental is right! Unlicensed means just that... and so does federal pre-emption. A contract is a contract but I'll be shocked if the FCC comes down on the wrong side of this one.
Posted by: Anthony at August 19, 2005 1:02 AM