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FCC Nixes Airport's Ban On Private Net Access

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the piggy-piggy dept.

Several readers wrote to let us know about a ruling by the US Federal Communications Commission forbidding Boston's Logan Airport from shutting down airline-supplied Internet access services that compete with the airport's own, for-pay wireless coverage. From the article: "A two-year effort by Logan International Airport officials to shut down private alternatives to the airport's $8-a-day wireless Internet service was decisively rejected yesterday by federal regulators, who blasted airport officials for raising bogus legal and technological arguments."

5 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. FCC did what? by Amouth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can't believe it.. the FCC did the right thing for once.. I... I am out of words.. lets hope this moment of competency continues.

    --
    '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
  2. Clearly. by Irvu · · Score: 5, Funny

    Clearly the Airport officials were not paying the right people enough lobbying money. I mean the FCC is perfectly willing to accept bogous legal and technical arguments for deregulation of the airwaves. And it has been happy to digest bogous arguments against community wireless. Ditto the bogous arguments for the Broadcast flag. One can only assume that Logan Airport's lobbying budget is too small or has been misspent.

  3. Re:I'm glad.... I think.... by mspohr · · Score: 3, Informative

    The FCC was involved because Massport had complained to the FCC that the WiFi service would interfere with other radios... the FCC rightly said this was shenanigans.

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    I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
  4. Re:I'm glad.... I think.... by Brickwall · · Score: 3, Informative
    Did you RTFA? Massport appealed to the FCC to shut down Continental, saying that the competing WiFi could compromise both ATC and other 'public safety' communication systems (note: the FAA has nothing to do with these other systems). It wasn't a case of the FCC sticking their nose in; Massport was trying to use the FCC to achieve their monopoly aim.

    And the issue of whether a property owner can dictate that you must use their WiFi system is not the slam-dunk you think it is. If you rent an apartment, your landlord has certain rights on how you can use it (e.g. you can't run a restaurant in it) but can't tell you you have to buy mobile phones from him. To use your Starbucks example, you can't go into Starbucks and order a pizza from Dominos, but Starbucks also cannot tell you you can only read magazines purchased from them.

    --
    What was once true, is no longer so
  5. Forgot the magic bullet by yali · · Score: 3, Funny
    ...blasted airport officials for raising bogus legal and technological arguments.

    Haven't these guys learned anything since 9/11? If they'd only raised bogus security arguments, they would've sailed through. Heck, the feds probably would've authorized them to shoot anybody with a BlackBerry.