Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Jeff Carroll Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Dataports at Atlanta Message-ID: <5232@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 15 Mar 90 19:33:56 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Jeff Carroll Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle Lines: 51 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 177, Message 6 of 10 In article <5083@accuvax.nwu.edu> bill@shannon (Bill Berbenich) writes: >In TELECOM Digest V10, #159, Ken Jongsma, ken@cup.portal.com writes: >>I had an interesting experience at the Atlanta Airport today. Some >>airports (like Seattle) provide a place to plug your laptop into the >>phone network. Seattle has a nice business area with desks, fax >>machines and charge a call phones. All provided at no charge! (stuff deleted)> >A letter to Delta suggesting a no-charge business area would probably >be a good idea - maybe other list members could mail a letter also (?). The "teleport" at SeaTac Airport is provided by USWest Communications. There's one in the north satellite (i.e., the United terminal), one in the main terminal (though rather hard to find), and, presumably, one in the south satellite, the international terminal, though I haven't been out there to check. International flights from Seattle are to places I don't go. SeaTac, despite its role as an international hub, is a relatively large, spacious, and empty airport, which had room to spare for such services (the airport is much older than the "teleport".) I would guess that, even in other cities served by USWest, there probably isn't existing room in the airport terminals for such a service. (Do Denver, Portland, and Minneapolis have them?) I would also conjecture that vandalism in the average airport is much higher than at SeaTac. Further, the authority governing SeaTac airport is only very loosely coupled to other governmental agencies. The Port of Seattle is governed by a board of commissioners, who are directly elected by the voters of King County, and tend overwhelmingly to be businessmen rather than politicians. The mayor of Seattle has nothing at the airport with his name on it, except newspapers. Would the airlines provide such services? Maybe, but I doubt that we'd be satisfied with their quality (and/or cost). Ditto for the airport authorities (too much chance of politically-based patronage of somebody's fly-by-night operation.) I'd write to the local BOC. Jeff Carroll carroll@atc.boeing.com