Jacksonville Int'l Airport to Provide Free Wireless

The next time you take your laptop out of the bag at Jacksonville's International Airport's security checkpoint, you might not want to bother putting it away.

Starting next month, the airport plans to provide wireless Internet access throughout its terminal.

The service, which should be turned on sometime between March 15 and April 1, will be free to users, supported by advertising from businesses such as those operating in the airport or nearby hotels.

About half of the airports in the country use such a system, said Rich Stroup, director of technology for the Jacksonville Aviation Authority, including the airport in Fort Lauderdale, which JIA's service is modeled after.

That model seems to have worked out well, said Steve Belleme, spokesperson for Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The airport handles about 62,000 passengers a day, and by December 2005 -- about a year after it set up its service -- almost 45,000 people were using the airport's WiFi network each month.

"You can walk through the terminal and see people working on their laptops and if you peek at their screens, you see a lot of people on the Internet," Belleme said.

As at JIA, operating costs are low, he said, and the customer goodwill is worth the money.

Jacksonville sees about 15,730 passengers a day but is installing enough bandwidth to support larger amounts of traffic, Stroup said.

Although Jacksonville is a little late to the party -- some airports have been providing Internet access for years -- by delaying a bit, JIA has managed to save money by buying equipment after prices have fallen a bit, Stroup said. Setting up the service will cost about $ 360,000, a flat rate that the Airport Authority will pay to IBM Corp. and five sub-contractors for equipment, setup and support.

Part of that contract is around-the-clock technical assistance for the next year, after which Stroup said the airport might handle support duties in-house.

Over the next few weeks, contractors will continue running cables and installing access points, while technicians set up servers behind the scenes, working to blanket any area of the building where travelers might want one to get online.

Of course, there is one airport denizen for who the new service might not be positive: Rent-A-Cellular, the storefront shop that rents out office space, complete with Internet access, for 65 cents a minute.

"It will affect us some," said Mark Wilson, a salesman at the store.

"The majority of our customers use the Internet."

On the other hand, the new service will stop one irritation of Wilson's job: People asking about WiFi. "A lot of people ask," he sighed. "At least one a day."

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