Google free wi-fi at airports
Well, I've landed safely here at Smallville. As I was headed to the baggage claim, I saw Google was offering free wi-fi at airports through January 15th.
I whipped out the website to see how they were going to monetize this.
After connecting, the first page that came up was a page of favorite Google charities, where, they will match any donations.
The charities were:
- Climate Savers Computing
- One Economy Corporation
- EWB-USA (Engineers Without Borders)
I kept looking for the bottom line — after all, Google is a publicly-traded company.
Well, after January 15th, they will start charging for the service … I guess?
These network provider is not Google — it's other companies
Like Boingo. So … is Google simply paying everybody's wi-fi at airports through January 15? After that … nothing?
I'd love for someone to leave a comment explaining Google's profit motive.
Excuse me if I'm skeptical … but I'm definitely skeptical here. They must be testing to see how many users they can get on the network, and whether it's worth subsidizing free wi-fi at airports.
For the record — the wi-fi worked, for the most part. I was able to get the blog, email, and drudge on the screen. It was a little slow, but satisfactory.
I certainly wouldn't pay for it. The wi-fi on the plane was faster!
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