Boingo in the airport
I am in the airport in San Francisco waiting to board a plane to take me back home. It’s been a great trip but I’m ready to get home to the family and the electricity. I pulled out my laptop here and turned it on and a popup window opened up and told me that there was a Boingo-enabled hotspot. I clicked OK to log on and was enjoying blazing WiFi speed with one click. That’s what I like about Boingo and why I pay the monthly fee.
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I had an interesting experience with Boingo wireless last month I was flying from Toronto to Seattle via Salt Lake City.
While waiting for the plane in Toronto, I pulled out my iPhone and joined the Boingo wireless network. The opening web page for Boingo for the iPhone give a choice of free ad-sponsored access or paid access. The ad-sponsored access was good for 10 or 15 minutes (I can’t remember which), after which the next page loaded would bring you back to the initial menu to choose another 15 minutes of free access or to pay. After 3 or 4 sessions (again, I can’t remember which), you would no longer be able to use the free access for the remainder of the day. In any case, I thought this was great as I was in a foreign country and did not want to pay the international data roaming rate.
During my stop-over in Salt Lake City, I tried to sign onto the Boingo access point and was presented with the same options. Unfortunately, I was not able to use the free, ad-sponsored WiFi again because they used a central server to remember my iPhone’s MAC address from the earlier session in Toronto.
Wow, I didn’t know you have a Boingo account. So in addition to EVDO card and 3G SIM cards (you have more than one, don’t you?), a Boingo as well? Granted Boingo is not that expensive (I have $10/month plan which IMO is a pretty good deal), but it sounds so redundant in your situation.
I tend to agree.. why have the damn wifi card at all if you just use it during hurricanes at you own house??
I have an iPass account through my employer, but I generally don’t use it unless my EVDO card doesn’t work. No reason to add something like $10 to my employer’s already huge telecom cost when I have more or less unlimited EVDO at similar speeds.
When I am abroad, things are, of course, different.
I’ve been noticing more and more airport clubs like Delta Crown Room’s are owned by T-Mobile and don’t accept Boingo. This is putting my Boingo subscription in jeopardy though if I could I’d rather switch airlines to one that “gets” it and doesn’t sign such contracts with carriers.