WayPort buys Laptop Lanes and will add 802.11b to several airports: the first real public salvo in the battle of the airports. Although the reach of for-fee public Wi-Fi networks have been growing over the last year, most notably with MobileStar's expansion to hundreds of Starbucks outlets, airport terminal coverage has been highly restricted, often found behind closed doors in red carpet or executive clubs.
The parent company of Laptop Lanes, SoftNet Systems, bought that firm in 2000 as part of its attempt to expand into a national brand. They also founded AerZone, which was focusing on partnerships with airlines to quickly roll out service in airports. They had signed contracts with United and Delta to equip all of their gates and lounges, and a contract with San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to roll service out there. Laptop Lanes was to be renamed AerZone Business Center, or something similar.
Abruptly, however, AerZone gave up the ghost in mid-December 2000, after under a year of development (with no operations). I had interviewed their CMO on a Thursday; the next Monday, the outside PR firm called to tell me operations had ceased (apparently to the surprise of the CMO). SoftNet had absorbed the reality of the costs of deployment in a tightening economy, and pulled back. It also started advertising for a buyer for Laptop Lanes.
AerZone has proved a cautionary tale for other wireless ISPs, who have only gradually moved into airports. WayPort's acquisition of Laptop Lanes gives them point sources to equip rather than requiring a complete terminal coverage, which the company offers at only a few airports, such as - erratically - at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SeaTac).
The lessons learned from AerZone are several. Cost is certainly one, as building complete coverage - which some airports' operators have required - requires both wired and wireless infrastructure. One provider (now pulling out of the public market itself) said that it could cost $2 million to equip an average metropolitan airport.
Word also circulates among the companies and individuals I speak to regularly that some airports are demanding large fees simply for entry, plus significant portions of the proceeds. (MobileStar charges an extra $1 per 24-hour-period in an airport even when using its unlimited minutes service.)
Another factor is competition: some airports are still bidding offers, and others have limited deployment until they can decide on policies for overlap. The ownership of the airwaves in airports is not exactly up for debate, but there are multiple stakeholders confusing issues further: can an airline offer "private" Wi-Fi in its red carpet club and at its gates, while the airport authorizes other services for the entire airport?
There's definitely a technology issue, too: if you aim for complete coverage with competition, you have a limited number of potential overlapping channels to avoid reducing bandwidth for everyone. (Wi-Fi has 11 available channels in the U.S., but they overlap. You can operate three access points on three distinct, nonoverlapping channels, but if you have two services trying to overlap coverage - you get the point. You run out of channels, and you require complete coordination between competitors.)
Although at first blush, it seems a no-brainer to do the airports first and let cities follow, wireless ISPs seem doomed to follow in Metricom's halting footsteps. The airports need to be fully available and reliable at any reasonable price; hook the customer there, and they take the service home with them, and demand it there.
[Current publicly known coverage: Seattle's SeaTac, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Austin, and San Jose have more or less complete coverage, with MobileStar in American Airlines lounges in all major cities, and Global Digital Media (still?) hitting Boston and Philadelphia.]