Airline Hits Logan on Bid to Limit WiFi

By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff

American Airlines, the biggest carrier at Logan International Airport, is accusing Logan officials of 'strong-arming' to crush competitive alternatives to the airport's new high-speed Internet access service.

The airline also alleges that the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, trumped up 'security concerns' and violations of airport terminal leases as a pretext for shutting down airlines' WiFi service. It contends Massport wanted to force passengers to pay $8 a day for Massport-controlled wireless Internet service.

"Massport's objective is clearly to force all WiFi access onto the [Massport] system, either through strong-arming other providers or by preventing carriers from providing Internet access to their own patrons," wrote American Airlines attorney Alec Bramlett in a filing to the Federal Communications Commission late last month.

Massport spokeswoman Danny Levy said Massport's security concerns 'are indeed accurate.' A profusion of airline-operated WiFi signals, Levy said, could jam radio frequencies used by the State Police and Transportation Security Administration.

Levy said the TSA has already begun testing use of the Logan WiFi network for protected security operations. "Additional applications are planned for the future, but I cannot get into specifics," she said.

WiFi, which stands for wireless fidelity, offers multimegabit Internet connections for laptop computers and other devices within so-called hot spots. Hot spots are zones within about 150 feet of a special radio transmitter that operates on nonlicensed airwaves similar to those used by baby monitors, cordless phones, and walkie-talkies.

Massport first began offering its own airport-wide WiFi access at Logan in June 2004. Since then, the agency has ordered American to remove a competing WiFi service in its Admirals Club lounge in Terminal B, which wireless communications provider T-Mobile USA Inc. has been operating since 2000.

In July Massport also ordered Continental Airlines Inc. to stop providing WiFi at its frequent-flier club, and ordered Delta Air Lines Inc. not to deploy WiFi in its new Terminal A.

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