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I flew out of Detroit’s McNamara Terminal yesterday. In the concourse is an “Online Cafe”, which is really just a cafe with a couple of computers with flat-screen moniters sitting along the wall. I figured they might have wireless access, so I fired up my PowerBook to check.
The entire terminal has wireless access. Although unlimited access costs $6.95 for 24 hours, I could get airport and flight information for free. I
This access would be great if I could pay for an hour of it (oh gees, did I just suggest micro-payments? $7 / 24 hours is about 30 cents an hour), but for $7 an hour, I will just do the crossword in the paper. Of course, most people will not be in the terminal for 24 hours, so I think the 24 hours of access is just a way to throw off people as they try to figure out if it is worth it. Somewhere in there is a black-market business in limited-time account trading.
Which other airports have concourse wireless?
I've never had luck in Detroit
Interesting. I've never had luck finding a wireless signal in Detroit Metro.
I too wish for micropayments. I'm rarely in any given airport for more than three hours, and usually it's less than that. I can buy all-day access, but it's then a safe bet that whatever airport I fly to next will be served by a different wireless provider, neccessitating another purchase.
Only when it's desperately important for me to send an email, which it rarely is, do I bother to pay for wireless.
micropayment == macrocost
As long as the cost of cashing in on those micropayments is non-trivial there's no way to accept them and still make a profit.
I suspect that if they made access available per hour they'd need to charge $3-$5 an hour to recover the cost of the creditcard transactions involved in the payment processing (or whichever other means of payment are involved), or have a flat fee of say $4 (to cover costs) plus $0.50 an hour.
Offering a flat rate for (effectively) unlimited access is therefore likely the only way they can offer the service.
micropayment == macrocost
They offer the service regardless of the number of customers they actually get.
As the consumer, I do not care what their costs are. I care what my costs are, and the cost is too much for me.
They charge you, let you connect to your VPN, then nothing after that. You cannot even locate the phone# to cancel the 24 hour use charge.