Flying the Wi-Fi Skies

I'm seeing a lot of tweets and status messages from surprised and happy travelers over the past couple of days: Google and Microsoft are both providing free Wi-fi services to some airline passengers and airports. Oh, there's a price of sorts: usually the users have to sit through some brief promotion from the sponsor. But that seems a very small price indeed for a service which can make flying time more productive - and, if not productive, certainly more entertaining.

Om Malik has the details. He thinks it's a smart marketing move, and he's probably right. Seems like a nice holiday present for many of us. Or, as the irrepressible Gizmodo puts it, "Holiday season air travel just got a little less crappy." That's really saying something.

Hat tip: MediaPost (which calls it a "freemium." Not bad!)

Comments

[Peter Shankman]

Or you buy a $59 per month Sprint (or whomever) broadband card and always be connected. Nice idea, but I'm curious as to how many people are going to get sniffed over these networks - primarily because the sponsors are reaching out to consumers - not biz travelers, who already have their systems protected...