Boston Airport WiFi Spat Now A "Security" Issue

from the big-for-their-britches dept

Mon, Oct 10th 2005 10:36am — Carlo Longino

Massport, which runs Boston's Logan Airport, has for some time been trying to force airlines to use its paid-access WiFi network in the airport instead of operating their own. This clearly usurps the authority of the FCC to regulate unlicensed spectrum -- authority the FCC has made clear belongs to it alone. Now, Massport is attempting to paint the issue as one of security, which American Airlines says masks the real reason the airport wants everyone to use its network -- money. Massport says that every airline running its own network "could jam radio frequencies used by the State Police and Transportation Security Administration", since apparently the TSA is testing using the airport network. Glenn Fleishman rightly wonders why critical emergency or security communications would use an unlicensed band, rather than dedicated public safety spectrum. Massport's security argument is bunk, and American's lawyer says that throughout talks about WiFi stretching back to last May, the airport's concerns were strictly commercial in nature. The bottom line is, whatever Massport believes, its authority doesn't supercede that of the FCC.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

3 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Tony Whelan, 10 Oct 2005 @ 3:44pm

Boston Airport WiFi Spat Now A "Security" Issue
A thinly veiled attempt at a monopolised closed WiFi market, I agree with Glenn. As one will discover when this is thrown out, the FCC took a first step by deciding to allocate to public safety about 50 Megahertz of spectrum in the 4.9 Gigahertz range.
This is less than the 100 or 200 Megahertz originally anticipated for these needs. It excludes communications to police surveillance helicopters.
There is also potential interference from powerful Navy radio equipment, especially in the more populated coastal areas of the country. Nevertheless, this is a good first step forward.

Tony Whelan
CEO - IP Everywhere Inc
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2005 @ 1:35pm

Re: Boston Airport WiFi Spat Now A
The FCC has made recents statements indicating that it intends to give priority to law enforcement's desires over all else. So Massport might just get what it wants. Now expect to see other agencies playing the "law enforcement" card in the future to get what they want out of the FCC.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Paul Osborn, 11 Oct 2005 @ 6:05pm

Massport
At the Admirals Club in Boston T-Mobile had to resort to Ethernet to by-pass Massport. This is silly - Boston is the only airport I fly to (Platinum on AA) in the US where I can't use wireless at the Admirals Club. I'll never use Massport's pay-for system at Logan.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]