[Previous entry: "Pedophiles in Spokane"] [Next entry: "The End of Something"]

04/24/2006: "Pricecut on concourse 11!"

I'm in the beginnings of a nearly two week / eight segment tour of the southwest. First stop, and every other stop from here is Phoenix "Sky Harbor" airport. As Glenn reported back in December, the WiFi in Phoenix is free. Unfortunately it doesn't work very well. While port 80 is open, so HTTP apps work (and thus I can post this), all other ports are blocked, so I can't run iChat/AIM, or even send and receive email.

Phoenix Sky Harbor offers a PDF for "DIY debugging", (PDF), but its not any help.

Potentially the most interesting thing about this is that every Airport I will visit will offer public 802.11 coverage. Las Vegas and Phoenix are free, while Honolulu and Austin is not. Austin, of course is the first (Ipersonally installed it back in 1999.) Wayport waited months to announce it. In addition, while I was still at Wayport, the airports we installed were all free, mostly as a huge "fuck you" to Mobilestart (since acquired by T-Mobile.)

Still, it will all tip toward free over time. Glenn asks the hard question here that hotels must answer. By my estimate, the hotels have already tipped, the food space has tipped (T-mobile is hangs on in Starfucks and Run-fo-theBorders, but its about the only hold-out I can find.) Now the airports are tipping.

I hope Phoenix fixes their problems (or policy) here soon. (Guys & Girls, I'm willing to help, just call (or email)).