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Hot Topic: The US FCC Weighs In On Pax Side At Logan Airport!   

You may not have heard of an FCC Ruling released on November 1, 2006 (ET Docket No. 05-247) but you will no doubt be seeing the effects of it for some time to come. The landmark ruling may be one of the most important FCC decisions effecting travelers because it established the right of airport tenants to provide unlicensed wireless services to their employees and customers. But it also has broad ramifications for other free Wi-Fi services not associated with airports. The story begins at Boston’s Logan Airport, under the management of Massport, wherein the lessor sought to stop Continental Airlines from offering Wi-Fi services to passengers who had access to Continentals lounges. Continental Airlines claimed they had the right to do so under earlier OTARD rulings which were originally written to prevent landlords from prohibiting the reception of television services in favor of their own offered TV services. The FCC concluded technically that Continental's antenna met the three conditions necessary under the federal rules: The antenna was used to receive or send commercial, non-broadcast radio signals, the antenna measured 1 meter or less in diameter or diagonal measurement, and it was located in a lounge closet…a direct leasehold interest location. The free Continental service was countered by Massport’s $8 per day service, and yes readers if you have not figured it out by now, it was really all about money. Claiming the airports nixing of Continental’s service was because of potential interference concerns with the airports safety and communication services (…and the paid one did not?), plus economic harm to the airport, the issue was finally put before the US FCC. The FCC agreed that Continental had every right to provide such services under the OTARD statutes and we have provided a link to the ruling below.

Noting that the airport shouldn't expect to make money off of unlicensed devices, the FCC opined in favor of the greater good, and rightly, the bigger issues of competition and availability really shined thru. If this policy had stood, who knows how invasive Massport’s greed would have been. Consider Gatelink, or onboard or at-gate Wi-Fi payment issues? But this is really not the end of this quandary. Connected passengers want a ubiquitous service offering and we suspect that travelers would be happy to pay some small increment to their wireless bills to support this service everywhere. The problem is who to pay for it. Perhaps, this is one service that will only arrive as a result of legislation or, God forbid, service providers would have to work together to sort it out. The bigger picture is the offering of community wireless projects that have been held in limbo till this ruling saw light. Besides payment, we expect to see action is the areas of streaming video, entertainment and possibly, on-line gaming and VOIP demons to arise. This won’t affect me, you say? Think again...

Here is a link to the FCC ruling: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-06-157A1.pdf
 

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