Google's Christmas gift to America is free Wi-Fi at airports starting today

By on Nov 10, 2009 at 8:34 AM
General November 10, 2009

google-xmas-wifi

Those that hate Google but travel frequently might feel a bit conflicted over the next couple of months because of Google’s holiday gift to America. Starting today and ending on January 15th, Google will be offering up free, no strings attached Wi-Fi at 47 airports while Virgin American flyers will be getting free in-flight Wi-Fi as of the 18th. The In addition to this, Google has set up a way for travelers at each airport to donate to charities Engineers Without Borders, the One Economy Corporation and Climate Savers Computing Initiative. Google will match each airports donations up to $250,000 and will also give the most generous airport $15,000 for the charity of its choosing.

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  • nowadroidfan

    what airports will this be offered at. is there a list?

  • onyoface
  • cP

    List of airports;
    • 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)

  • red014

    Who the hell would hate Google?

    I hate it when stupid companies offer free services as an alternative that I don’t have to use if I choose not to…

  • Sin City

    Fort Lauderdale and Miami are included so that’s good for when I travel there every October or Spring Break. Now I just need it in my neck of the woods, which is New York.

    • T

      Ft Lauderdale has free WiFi anyway… I always fly in and out of there when traveling into Florida. Layovers and waiting times there are always so nice because of that.

  • piper

    I don’t like Google………..I LOVE GOOGLE :) VOICE/WAVE smiles all around.

  • Vzwguy

    It’s about time there is free wifi in airports! It would always piss me off when I was waiting for 2 hours for the next flight and go to connect, “please log in or have your credit card ready”. Thank you google!!

  • JoeTour

    unfortunately a giant like Google is wasting time and $$$ for “climate savers” ….. while i completely agree that we have to do a better job of cleaning up, and downgrading the greenhouse emissions, etc., for health reasons, just don’t sell me the idea that a company like climate savers is going to “save” the universe from disaster…..
    sorry guys/gals for being off topic, but as i read the charity paragraph it made me laugh, im sure many did………

  • jesseps

    Sucks that I am not flying into any US cities this year.

    I am shocked to see that San Fran and Honolulu isn’t on the list.

  • http://www.dotcom3.net/ Jeremy

    Some of these airports have Free WiFi anyway. Pittsburgh International has had free WiFi for years.

  • tsudeily

    not sure why anyone would hate google lol. pretty sweet deal

  • drathos

    Several of the airports they listed offer free WiFi all the time, so it’s rather disingenuous to list them. One airport that I noticed isn’t on the list is Atlanta (ATL, one of the busiest airports in the world), which has something like 10 or 12 WiFi providers, but they all charge for access.

  • blue steel

    chicago isn’t included in this?! not fair…

  • Gs

    Sacramento, CA and Portland,OR had free wi-fi for a few years anyway.

  • midibite

    all your base are belong to us

  • denz

    It is really clever, give away a product, get people used to using it, then announce your pricing model and hope they are too lazy to change back to what they were using before.

    I would be more impressed if they simply offered free wifi, without an end date and paid for with the annoying sponsored ads they force users to look at.

  • Zeek

    Google could’t get OAK and SFO to play in their own back yard ? burn!

  • outphase

    Hmm… San Diego and I think Austin already have existing free WiFi as well.

  • Jeremiah

    I was initially confused by the fact that some of the airports listed already have free Wi-Fi, but then I realized that they’re participating with Google for the whole charity campaign, not necessarily just to include free internet to travelers.

  • Matt Thompson

    @Jeremy
    Seriously. BFL isn’t on the list (and it’d be hard to find on any map, given its insignificance), and we’ve had free Wi-Fi there for a long, long time.

  • Plan B

    They better start the goodwill tour. Without anyone really noticing they’ve become the new Microsoft. The 800 lb gorilla of the tech world – only they’re dispersed into more media and businesses than Redmond ever thought possible. Hello big brother!

  • Taha K

    Although this is a great idea by Google, it seems like the majority of international airports already have free wifi hotspots…

    It’s surprising that Chicago’s O’ Hare airport isn’t on the list…neither is LAX.

  • ILoveGoogleNOT

    Mmmm theres a reason its free. Let me guess… So they can see what sites we browse and charge for clicks based on whats popular in thier adwords program. Mmmm, what a shady world google is. They are like this huge company that claims do no evil little do we know they are like the digital new age mafia harvesting all this data we browse. They track you on every front, through anayltics, now free internet, google talk they see what you chat, google phone service, I mean WTF when is the GOV going to stop this beast from taking over the world….

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