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The airport has become a notorious corporate black hole-a place where flight delays, layovers or cancellations leave many road warriors grounded with little means to do business. While they might want to use the time catch up on e-mail messages or work online, Internet connections-let alone broadband access-typically are scarce or nonexistent.
Enter a small but growing group of startups eager to offer the latest in broadband wireless technology to make airport lounges temporary offices. Is that a niche market? Maybe not, as some see the airports as a foothold in establishing go-anywhere broadband Internet.
Last month, Aerzone Corp. cut a deal with United Airlines to install its wireless broadband Internet service at United terminals and facilities. That follows a similar agreement forged this spring with Delta Airlines.
Aerzone, which is majority owned by SoftNet Systems Inc., uses 802.11-standard wireless networking technology. Although the company already has set up its Laptop Lane connection centers in 15 airports, it needs airline partners to target the corporate traveler on the ground and, eventually, in the air, according to Aerzone CEO Larry Brilliant.
"Business travelers mostly want broadband access in airports-they can go online at a hotel using a dialup connection," says Brilliant. "It's also in-flight-which is key. That's a little far off, but by having the airlines as partners we can offer that seamless experience to the customer."
Aerzone customers access the network using an 802.11 network card, which they can buy at retail outlets and attach to their laptop computers. Though prices vary, they pay about $60 monthly flat fee or buy plans offering blocks of time or per-use.
That may seem pricey for use only in travel, but Aerzone is betting its target customers will be fairly cost-hardened-the 8 million constant fliers, many of whom are CEOs and other corporate brass willing to pay to stay connected. "Those people will pay anything for the opportunity to change 10 hours of dead time per month to 10 hours of productive time," Brilliant says.
Aerzone isn't flying solo in the travel communications business. One of the longest-running broadband wireless services for business travelers is Texas-based MobileStar Network Corp., which has been in business since 1996. Armed with more than $50 million in venture capital, its wireless LAN networks are running in 30 airports and 100 hotels nationwide.
Like Aerzone, customers buy a wireless LAN card to access the networks, opting for a flat fee or a package of minutes. But MobileStar can support a variety of schemes including 802.11b and HomeRF-a strategy that is "a reality of the world we live in," according to Mark Goode, president and CEO.
"People bring in laptops with WECA, HomeRF and Bluetooth," he notes. "You either take advantage of those multiple protocols and provide it or you force the consumers to choose."
MobileStar is in the second year of a multi-year agreement with American Airlines to locate wireless broadband hubs in its airport Admiral's Clubs, and the company is working on agreements with the other carriers.
Because no one wireless provider can cover all airports and hotels everywhere, Goode thinks his industry will follow in the footsteps of PCS and cell phone products and enable roaming from one provider's LAN to another.
Yet another rival is Metricom, which focuses on workers who spend at least one day out of the week out of the office, conducting business most often in their car. "We cater more to the mobile professional-not so much the road warrior," says Mike Ritter, Metricom's chief technology officer. "While we think the road warrior will be interested in the services, we are really focusing on the mobile professional."
Using a proprietary wireless scheme mounted on light poles, Metricom has created a wireless microcell web in 11 cities under the Ricochet moniker. By the end of 2001, Metricom hopes Ricochet's 128 kilobits per second service-the company also has plans to boost speeds eventually to DSL-type bandwidths-will cover cities totaling 100 million people in more than 40 markets, Ritter says.
Through resellers including Worldcom and Juno, customers pay a flat $75 to $80 monthly for access. An access card attached to the customer's laptop gives connection, but Metricom is working with chipmaker National Semiconductor to create a chipset to be built in to laptops and PDAs.
Ritter says unlike competitors such as SoftNet's Aerzone, Metricom doesn't see broadband wireless usage confined to the business professionals stuck in an airport on a layover. In fact, while those coverage areas do include 15 airports, Metricom has found through its own surveys that most customers are not tapping it for long-haul trips.
"Eighty to ninety percent of our people don't go outside their home cities," Ritter says. "Like cellular phones, they just want the freedom. Our goal when we built the system was to let the mobile professional take their office with them."
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