T-Mobile pays small fortune to gain three L.A. airports: The Los Angeles terminal has frustrated high-tech travelers for years as other major airports (Chicago aside) gained their Wi-Fi access. With Chicago finally coming online in both airports, LAX now has a plan. T-Mobile will add access there and at the Ontario and Van Nuys airport. The operating authority's press release notes that T-Mobile will pay at least $4.8 million per year for access to customers of these three airports plus 25 cents per session on top of that minimum fee. They've also committed to $1m per year in capital expense.
Los Angeles International sees 61.5m passengers through its doors each year, while Ontario has 7m a year. Van Nuys is dedicated to general aviation, which is everything outside of regularly scheduled commercial flights, with 500,000 takeoffs and landings each year. T-Mobile needs to average about a dime per person at these airports in revenue to break even on their payments.
Unfortunately, T-Mobile has few relationships with other hotspot aggregators--only with corporate-scale aggregators and international roaming partners--so LAX, San Francisco, and other T-Mobile airports will remain expensive for those who aren't T-Mobile HotSpot subscribers.