Google Offers Free WiFi in Airports this Christmas

Next news
6:20 PM - November 10, 2009 by Jane McEntegart

Google just keeps on giving!

Just before Halloween, Google announced that it would be providing free WiFi on all Virgin America flights over the holiday period. Today the company announced that it would provide free WiFi at 47 airports around the country.

Starting today and running through until January 15, Google, together with Boingo Wireless, Advanced Wireless Group, Airport Marketing Income are providing those traveling home for the holidays with free WiFi in nearly 50 airports around America.

Those of you interested in giving back can donate money any of the three non-profits Google has selected. These are Climate Savers Computing, One Economy Corporation and Engineers Without Borders USA. Once connected you'll see a link to donate via Google Checkout. At the end of the program (you know, when January rolls around and we're all flat broke), Google will match the donations, donating up to a maximum $250,000 across the three non-profits. The airport that collects the most will also receive $15,000 to donate to a charity of their choice.

Check the list below to see if you'll be getting free WiFi this Christmas!

Austin (AUS)
Baltimore (BWI)
Billings (BIL)
Boston (BOS)
Bozeman (BZN)
Buffalo (BUF)
Burbank (BUR)
Central Wisconsin (CWA)
Charlotte (CLT)
Des Moines (DSM)
El Paso (ELP)
Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
Fort Myers/SW (RSW)
Greensboro (GSO)
Houston (HOU)
Houston Bush (IAH)
Indianapolis (IND)
Jacksonville (JIA)
Kalamazoo (AZO)
Las Vegas (LAS)
Louisville (SDF)
Madison (MSN)
Memphis (MEM)
Miami (MIA)
Milwaukee (MKE)
Monterey (MRY)
Nashville (BNA)
Newport News (PHF)
Norfolk (ORF)
Oklahoma City (OKC)
Omaha (OMA)
Orlando (MCO)
Panama City (PFN)
Pittsburgh (PIT)
Portland (PWM)
Sacramento (SMF)
San Antonio (SAT)
San Diego (SAN)
San Jose (SJC)
Seattle (SEA)
South Bend (SBN)
Spokane (GEG)
St. Louis (STL)
State College (SCE)
Toledo (TOL)
Traverse City (TVC)
West Palm Beach (PBI)

Source : Tom's Hardware US

Talkback
Add your comment
Anonymous 11/10/2009 5:49 PM
Hide
--1+

GODDAM SFO gets no love! what the hell? That airport need free wifi like 10 years ago!

zak_mckraken 11/10/2009 6:01 PM
Show
buwish 11/10/2009 6:04 PM
Hide
-0+

If I had mega bucks, I'd wire the world for free wifi for X-MAS! Never the less, nice gesture.

Anonymous 11/10/2009 6:13 PM
Hide
-0+

"Match donatations" ... meaning if people give more than $250,000 Google will match as high as $250,000 or about 15minutes of Google's profits.

boxbabax 11/10/2009 6:28 PM
Hide
-3+

Don't know why I hear so much negativity, this is great. I am a little bit surprised that SFO wasn't included, its near Google's hometown. Oh well, San Diego is on the list! :)

tomrippity02 11/10/2009 6:50 PM
Hide
-5+

zak_mckraken :
What are they gonna do with the rest if donations sums up more than $250,000? Pocket the money? Sounds wrong...



They will MATCH up to 250,000. They aren't pocketing anything.

boxbabax 11/10/2009 6:51 PM
Hide
-3+

tomrippity02 :
They will MATCH up to 250,000. They aren't pocketing anything.



I thought that was extremely obvious.

wildwell 11/10/2009 6:54 PM
Hide
-0+

^^ Extremely.

I wonder how they chose the airports. So many major hubs are missing.

Yoder54 11/10/2009 7:01 PM
Hide
-1+

A bunch of no-name airports. Where is the free wi-fi in the big airports in the big cities like Chicago, Kennedy, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, LA, SeaTac, Miami, SF, etc.?

boxbabax 11/10/2009 7:13 PM
Hide
-1+

Yoder54 :
A bunch of no-name airports. Where is the free wi-fi in the big airports in the big cities like Chicago, Kennedy, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, LA, SeaTac, Miami, SF, etc.?



Im wondering if some of the bigger airports might have licensing agreements with some companies (like AT&T). Not sure though.

maigo 11/10/2009 7:14 PM
Hide
-4+

Thanks Google, but you're being too nice... you scare me

jacobdrj 11/10/2009 8:32 PM
Hide
-0+

This Xmass or xmass on?

buzznut 11/10/2009 8:59 PM
Hide
-0+

Wow, I'm outta touch. I assumed wifi would be free in all airports. I've never flown with a laptop or other wifi device.
Seems like it would be definitely needed now.

Gin Fushicho 11/11/2009 12:02 PM
Hide
-0+

Figgered Utah would be in there. Its Utah. *shrugs*

blackened144 11/11/2009 3:39 PM
Hide
-0+

Last time I was at the Ft. Lauderdale airport, they already had free wifi.

kri77777 11/11/2009 4:33 PM
Hide
-0+

Both Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando have free internet. Not sure about the others, but my bet is many of them already were, Google just gets advertising rights.

saint19 11/11/2009 5:06 PM
Hide
-0+

Good marketing, how do you see this Microsoft?

Sponsored links

Ads

Best offers

Ads
All about Miscellaneous
 Latest Miscellaneous articles
CPU Charts, An ATI Update, And Zotac's Mini-ITX Board

CPU Charts, An ATI Update, And Zotac's Mini-ITX Board
Chris checks in with an update on our 2009 CPU Charts, pricing on ATI's Radeon HD 5800/5900s graphics cards, news of official bitstreaming support, an interesting tidbit on power consumption in Eyefinity mode, and Zotac's second-gen mini-ITX board. Read More

  • Which Networking Technology Is Right For Your Home?
    Powerline, MoCA, 802.11 wireless, or conventional Ethernet--which networking technology is right for your home? Netgear sent us product based on all four technologies and we ran them through their paces to help you decide which works best in your home. Read More
  • Exclusive Interview: Nvidia's Ian Buck Talks GPGPU
    With Snow Leopard and Windows 7 both offering GPGPU capabilities, we wanted to talk to Nvidia's Ian Buck. Not only is he one of the fathers of Brook, the programming language ultimately adopted by AMD/ATI, but the head of Nvidia's CUDA group as well. Read More
All Miscellaneous articles

Newsletters


  • Ask your question about IT issues
  • Post

Partners

The Games selection

violent : Interactive Buddy Unwind on your interactive buddy: Do anything you want to him, it will earn you money, and you can buy other stuff to torture him with.
violent : More Mindless Violence Basic shooting game, but still so powerful! Use the mouse to take aim and shoot at the little beasties before they get to you. Use Space to reload....
Ads

Sponsored links