New Technologies Simplify the Airport Experience

Boarding pass? Check. Itinerary? Check. Airport map, favorite book, and a movie? Check, check, check.

All of these items aren’t just important things to have before heading to the airport — they’re also all items that travelers expect to access via their mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets.

When today’s traveler steps into an airport, they’re on their mobile devices from the parking lot to the gate. As more passengers use e-tickets, airline apps and everyday tools like email and social media to stay connected until they reach their destination, connectivity can make or break their experience within the airport.

The demand for easy-to-use technology shows no signs of slowing. A recent survey found that travelers are carrying more Wi-Fi enabled devices than ever before. About 97 percent of air travelers take along a smartphone, tablet or laptop when flying, and one in five travels with all three. More than 90 percent of passengers expressed interest in using new mobile services while at the airport like flight and bag collection updates, airport concession services and directions. If travelers aren’t already dependent on their smartphone now, they will be in the near future. Moreover, today’s travelers expect their connectivity at the airport to be as quick and easy to use as it is at their home or office.

With the current and projected growth in usage of mobile devices at the airport, airport IT teams are faced with a seemingly unwinnable tug-of-war between delivering the kind of easy, fast and seamless services travelers want and generating the important non-aeronautical revenue needed to continue offering complimentary service and to maintain the network. With connectivity considered an airport business imperative, how do today’s airports manage it, monetize it, and move to quickly evolve with changing traveler needs?

Fortunately there is an answer to this very real challenge. Leading airports are embracing new managed services best practices and efficiencies to make networks more scalable, adaptable, and user- and bottom line-friendly.

Adopt World-Class Experience Standards

With the advent of the mobile-first consumer, the wireless industry coalesced to develop new standards that would make Wi-Fi as easy and safe to use as cellular phones or home and office Wi-Fi networks. After nearly four years in development, a suite of powerful new wireless protocols called Passpoint made their debut at several airports across the U.S. in 2014.

Developed by a consortium of leading international wireless standards bodies, Passpoint delivers a connected experience to passengers. There are no logins and passwords to remember. No apps to download. With a Passpoint-enabled Wi-Fi network at the airport and a Passpoint profile installed on their device, a traveler is automatically connected to the fastest Wi-Fi available. Passpoint connects users securely as well, with an instant enterprise-grade WPA2-encrypted session.

The Passpoint experience may soon become a familiar one to consumers, with 25 major airports and other large-scale venues nationwide offering Passpoint-enabled networks today. In addition, major device manufacturers such as Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft are already supporting Passpoint, and carriers such as Time Warner Cable and Sprint are extending this superior quality of service to their customers. Sprint enabled millions of devices to automatically offload to Passpoint networks by Q4 2015, with plans to eventually offload millions more onto these networks to ensure an outstanding connected experience to customers, and balance their network capacity between their Wi-Fi and cellular networks.

In addition to offering the best available wireless experience to customers, Passpoint has the potential to offer a new revenue stream to airports. Wireless carriers and mobile service providers who choose to seamlessly move their customers to the airport’s Passpoint-enabled network pay for the opportunity to do so, providing a new funding source to offset network operation costs. The customer only needs Passpoint credentials loaded on their device which, based on their provider, may also be done automatically without the customer needing to do a thing.

Embrace the Cloud

With user demand increasing, and connected behaviors evolving quickly, network scalability has become essential. Airports that embrace the cloud and the power of virtualized networks can ensure that they are prepared with a future-proofed wireless system.

Today, leading network providers are designing networks utilizing the latest network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networks (SDN) technologies. These technologies aren’t just cleverly named — they allow for virtual, centralized management of networks by airports or their managed services providers via software. These technologies allow networks to scale up automatically to meet increased demand. The responsive technology of a virtualized network is instantly optimized to bring additional servers online when capacity needs to increase in real time.

Services managed virtually in the cloud allow for a more flexible and efficient network. These technologies can also allow airports to bring new services more quickly to their consumers, as they allow for easier trial and service evolution through virtualized management.

Analytics Built for Action

While operating an efficient, scalable and consumer-friendly network is among the top priorities of airport IT teams, bottom-line considerations are ever-present. Today’s savvy airport technologists not only want to help passengers feel at home, but they also want to understand and leverage connectivity data to better serve these passengers and drive ancillary revenue in the process.

Today’s advanced, managed Wi-Fi networks can provide insight into overall system availability, bandwidth consumption, aggregated wireless usage per server, and even physical location of devices. Customized reporting structures delivered by a managed service provider on a regular basis or by immediate need can provide a more holistic picture of the network, which IT teams can use to evaluate the network’s peak times and traffic trends. With this valuable information in hand, airports can formulate and implement appropriate actions to improve operations and optimize concessions, ultimately improving the passenger experience and overall service availability.

In this new age of the “Internet of Everything,” airports have more opportunity than ever to understand the customer journey. Having the right tools to mine this data will be invaluable for new service propositions. Actionable data, such as the number of passengers connected, demographics and psychographics, usage behavior, browsing and streaming behavior, can help shape informed business decisions and new approaches to customer care.

Tailored Monetization, Increased Flexibility

Savvy airport and large-scale venue managers realize that their customers aren’t biased toward a Wi-Fi or cellular connection. They are connectivity omnivores, who will connect to the best network available to get to the content that they crave.

With data demand projected to grow by 8x by 2020, high-traffic airports are leveraging all of the latest technologies to ensure sufficient coverage and capacity for connected travelers, and for their airport operations. These technologies include Wi-Fi, Distributed Antenna System cellular networks (DAS), and small cells, to ensure comprehensive, flexible coverage across all device types and carriers.

Airport networks featuring comprehensive, unified architecture incorporating both licensed and unlicensed technologies also offer terrific flexibility in business models. These networks can support wholesale access, like carriers extending the network to their customers and paying for the opportunity. As with Wi-Fi networks, these networks can support fun, engaging advertising that helps subsidize complimentary network access. And as connected needs evolve, these networks can support tiered service experiences, providing travelers with a customized experience, and the speeds that best serve their needs on a given day. Airports can take advantage of all or some of these business models with a network that is upgraded for today’s connected consumer.

Managing the Network of the Future

To many airport staffers, the scenarios described may sound idyllic. With seamless connectivity, passengers are able to self-direct themselves around the airport and find the information they need from a push notification on their phone. The challenge, however, is allocating the resources to make it possible. Creating a fast, reliable and future-forward network infrastructure often doesn’t fit into budgets or requires too much ongoing attention and workload for IT teams.

Partnering with a managed service provider can help technology directors fill this gap by outsourcing the tasks of monitoring, monetizing and evolving the airport’s wireless network.

With the right expertise and resources in place to support these critical objectives, staying at the forefront of the latest technology becomes standard operating procedure - leading to fewer headaches, happier customers and stronger long-term ROI on network investments.

In terms of scale, speed and structure, the aggregation of data will reach new heights and require new technologies. And in terms of transforming raw data into data of value, airport operators should look to partner with service providers with the right skills and experience. Relationships with wireless carriers, thorough and quick technical integration and a reputation for high-performance and scalable networks are must-haves for busy airports. The best partner will not only understand the business and end-user needs, but will also bring a deep understanding of industry trends and best practices on how to deploy and stay current with the most advanced technology.

Scott Phillips is the Boingo’s vice president of business development, with a focus on North American airports. Scott oversees the service strategy for Boingo’s North American aviation customers, as well as all aspects of airport partner account management. Scott has more than 30 years of experience in serving some of the world’s largest airports through development of innovative wireless solutions. Prior to joining Boingo, Scott founded and served as CEO of Advanced Wireless Group (AWG) and Electronic Media Systems, Inc. (EMS). Scott graduated from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.