Detroit Airport now has Wi-Fi network access

DETROIT -- By this time next year, it will not be news that a major airport is providing travelers with high-speed wireless access to the airport. This is remarkable because it was just a couple of years that the first airport in the world installed a Wi-Fi network.

The latest major airport to announce the availability of wireless Internet access Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) at the the state-of-the-art McNamara Terminal / Northwest WorldGateway. Through the Christmas and New Year's holiday, Wi-Fi access will be available and free of charge to travelers flying through Detroit's McNamara Terminal.

With the new Wi-Fi system installed, DTW becomes one of the top 15 airports in the country to offer Wi-Fi availability in its terminals. Currently Wi-Fi is only available at the McNamara Terminal. Smith and Berry Terminal travelers can still plug-in to data ports available at all of the airport's public telephones, and with a new terminal project planned, airport management is looking into incorporating Wi-Fi service throughout the terminal complex in the future.

"This is another landmark occasion for us in Detroit," said Wayne County Airport Authority CEO Lester Robinson. "Our state-of-the-art terminal now has a state-of-the-art wireless communication system, that is available not only to our employees, tenants, contractors, airlines and federal agencies, but most importantly, our travelers, who more and more are looking for 
new convenient modes of communication and quick and easy access to information."

McNamara Terminal travelers with Wi-Fi cards or wireless enabled laptop computers, PDAs and smartphones can now surf the web, send e-mail, even check flight status and headline news at blazing wireless speeds upwards of 500 Kbps.

Both voice and data

The airport partnered with Concourse Communications Group, LLC, based in Chicago, IL to provide a single comprehensive commercial wireless access system (CWAS) which provides both voice (PCS/Cellular mobile phones) and data (Wi-Fi/802.11b) service over a state-of-the-art air blown fiber (ABF) network.

"The ABF network is a 'future proof' fiber optic super highway that spans throughout the McNamara Terminal providing point-to-point, high-speed connectivity access for all tenants, passengers and visitors," said Dick Snyder Senior VP of Marketing for Concourse. "The Wayne County Airport Authority is truly on the cutting edge of this technology, and their investment in this infrastructure shows a strong vision and commitment to being industry leaders in the high-tech arena."

While free through the holidays, wireless users at the McNamara Terminal will need to log-on and pay an access fee of $6.95 (for a 24-hour period), beginning on January 2, 2004. Payment can be made via credit card, and other payment options are currently being explored. Concourse also currently has roaming agreements with four wireless Internet service providers (WISPs), including Sprint PCS, iPass, STSN and Boingo. 

Free information sites

If a user already has a subscription with any of those WISPs, they will only need to sign-on with a username and password, and off they go. In addition, wireless users will also have access to several free information sites, through the Concourse network including Detroit Metro Airport's website, real-time flight information and links to headline news. The Concourse system also supports all popular Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) so enterprise users can securely access their corporate intranet sites.

In order to access the Concourse wireless system, users must have a wireless enabled notebook computer, PDA, smartphone or a device that has a Wi- Fi network card installed. While in the McNamara Terminal, users can simply launch their Internet browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.) at which point a Welcome page should appear. Some users may need to configure their Wi-Fi enabled device by setting the SSID (or network identifier) to "concourse" or "DTW." For further help, users should refer to their Wi-Fi manufacturer's manual.

Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport is undergoing one of the most largest transformations of any airport anywhere, and recently tied for second place among large U.S. airports in a 2002 customer satisfaction survey conducted by J.D. Power and Associates. 

In addition to the new 97-gate Edward H. McNamara Terminal / Northwest World Gateway, the airport has also recently opened a new 10,000 ft. runway, a new airport south access road, John Dingell Dr., and a new 400-room luxury-class Westin Hotel at the airport. With the creation of the new Wayne County Airport Authority, and future terminal projects planned, Metro Airport is quickly positioning itself as one of the finest air transportation gateways in the world.