Posts Tagged ‘Wireless Internet’
Wireless Internet and Airports – High Tech Ways to Survive Delays
Right now isn’t a particularly great time for air travel. With ever-increasing lines, security measures that seem to change with the whims of those administering them, and even higher fees for extra bags, it is both economically and emotionally taxing to choose the skies as your way to move around. But sometimes, driving just isn’t an option, so it is necessary to brave the madhouse that is your nearest airport and try to hope for the best.
One advantage to travel these days, however, is that more and more airports are wired. This means that travelers who happen to have a laptop or a smartphone can get online thanks to wireless internet, which in some cases is even complimentary. Likewise, if you happen to board the plane only to find out that it is going to be sitting on the ground for a few hours, those airlines that provide wireless service on the plane make it a lot easier to be stuck in your seat for three hours before even reaching your cruising altitude.
Another advantage to the growing presence of wireless internet in airports is that it has never been easier for customers to get the information they need on their delays–or to try and get some answers from an unresponsive customer service department. With so many travelers Twitter-savvy, airlines are having to resolve problems, lest they be publicly shamed by their customers. A number of them, including JetBlue, hire tech-savvy employees just to comb Twitter and try to resolve problems. So if you get to your gate only to find out that you’ve been bumped, it might be a great idea to tweet about it rather than yell at the person behind the counter. It seems that things get resolved quicker that way.
But even the wireless service in airports has its fair share of problems. When a number of travelers are all stranded at the same time and trying to get online, it definitely makes the network slow down, meaning that trying to video-chat at home is not going to be possible. And there’s always the matter of airports and airlines in general trying to make an extra buck. You really don’t believe that an airline known for charging extra for the pillow and blankets is going to let you surf the internet for free, do you? It just doesn’t make economic sense.
One way to get around the high costs of Wi-Fi that can exist is to simply go with your phone instead. Smartphones that operate on the 4G network are capable of streaming video footage for entertainment purpose, accessing Skype for making long-distance calls without running up one’s minutes, and even allowing the chance to check with the airline’s website to see if there are any updates on the situation. But doing all of these things from a phone can get a little tough. After all, a touchscreen was not really designed to deal with everything that is required when trying to comb the internet for who to call to register a complaint after being stuck in an airport for a few days.
The best way for tech-savvy travelers to surf the web as much as they like without needing to rely on a cell phone or the airport’s service is to just invest in WiMax. This new technology provides wireless service no matter where you are, thanks to a technological model that more closely resembles the way that a series of towers bounce the signal to provide millions with reliable cell phone service no matter where they are. With this new form of wireless, the same approach is used, only it’s being applied to the internet. This means that whether you’re in Logan Airport or LAX, you can get online without paying extra and have access to a network that’s not lagging due to thousands of people using it at once.
