Airports to be totally WiFi'd soon but few take advantage
More and more airports are adding WiFi hotspots throughout their facilities rather than limiting them to certain private airline lounges according to this WSJ story (subscription required). Philly and Pittsburg just did this and Atlanta is going to spend $11M to outfit its whole airport in an attempt to attract business travelers.
Indeed, while nearly a quarter of the nation's 536 commercial airports have Wi-Fi in some form or another, "usage is very low," says William Clark, research director at Gartner Inc. in Charlottesville, Va. Many business travelers either don't know the Wi-Fi technology exists in airports, don't have a laptop equipped with the technology or simply don't want to pay the average $5 to $15 one-time use fee. An Intel study shows that while 80% of business travelers tote laptops on trips, only 13% of them have ever tried Wi-Fi.