The Wall Street Journal reports on airports' increased control of the unlicensed airwaves in their confines: This is both an old and new story. Airports started demanding control years ago, but it's a slow boil as existing lease agreements expire and are revised, and as airports start to see the full revenue and logistics potential of having ubiquitous Wi-Fi for passengers, themselves, and their airline and concessionaire tenants.

What's most interesting in this piece is that airlines and other airport "customers" are starting to push back, given that Wi-Fi works in an unlicensed band. The writer notes, If an airline's Wi-Fi hardware isn't compatible with an airport-installed network, the carrier would have to buy a whole new system. This isn't quite it: Wi-Fi hardware all works with other Wi-Fi hardware. What she means becomes clear in the next paragraph when talking about UPS, which employs a combination of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi that might not work within all Wi-Fi networks.

A related story at Wi-Fi Planet gives the run-down on JFK, one of the world's largest and busiest airports. Concourse Communications has installed Wi-Fi in about a third of the airport terminals, with the rest to follow this year. (Back in early 2002, I wrote a piece in the New York Times in which Concourse was saying JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark would be lit during 2002 and 2003, but that's a function of the market conditions at the time that it was so delayed.)

But you have to love the president of Concourse's perfectly correct statement about JetBlue's rejection of Concourse's paid service being offered in their gates. "It is problematic. It devalues the services in order to help them sell tickets." Can I just say--exactly! Wi-Fi's bottom line has to be a tool, not a means in itself. For JetBlue, free Wi-Fi now becomes a draw even in JFK where other airlines have bought into the for-fee model.

The flip side, of course, is that if enough Wi-Fi subscribers can roam onto JFK as part of a $20 or so monthly unlimited subscription that covers the U.S., then the difference between free and fee becomes pedantic: you're not paying extra, so it feels "free."