Atlanta, Georgia, signs airport contact: This press release from SITA says they've signed a contract for Hartsfield-Jackson airport, which was supposed to have had Wi-Fi long ago under a larger plan that appears to be in suspension. It's a neutral host approach, which is one that appears to work well in airports--even T-Mobile and Cingular allow (for-fee) partner roaming onto their airport locations. The contract includes better cell-network performance, which means almost assuredly better 3G services. The Wi-Fi network will be running by fourth quarter of 2005.
Oakland, Calif., airport lit up by Sprint PCS: Sprint noted a few weeks ago that it would be unwiring Oakland International, which has had limited but useful Wi-Fi service through a special arrangement made by the Laptop Lanes part of Wayport. Service will be operational by Labor Day, they hope. This puts the SF Bay well ahead of the NY/NJ area: all three SF airports (SFO, San Jose, and Oakland) will have airport-wide Wi-Fi. NY/NJ has this only in LaGuardia and Newark with JFK lagging far, far behind (two terminals and a little scattered free airline-run service and lounge service).