Boingo Bets Passengers Will Engage with Sponsors for Free Wifi in Airports

When it comes to wireless internet, there are two kinds of airports. One gives away internet access for free while the other charges for it. (I’m going to ignore the very small number of US airports that still have no internet at all.) Boingo is now trying to combine the two ideas in order to increase usage and, therefore, revenue.

This idea isn’t a new one, but it’s new when it comes to wifi in airports. The basic pay per use model will still be in place, but now Boingo is partnering with sponsors who will give away chunks of free internet access to those passengers who are willing to engage with that sponsor.

The program is relatively flexible. I spoke with Boingo’s Director of Corp Comm Christian Gunning, and he said the first test they did was with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) last year in Oakland. Those passengers who registered for a Microsoft Live account received free internet time. They did another one where Microsoft’s Bing search engine gave passengers free internet time as long as they did a search on Bing for something. For Bing, it made a lot of sense because the idea has been to get Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) users to take Bing for a spin.

The latest promotion is actually the broadest one yet. Google has decided to offer unlimited free wifi during the holidays at a bunch of airports. That’s obviously one of the most expensive promotions out there, and not one that many companies could afford. So let’s focus on how a traditional company might use this system.

The beauty of a program like this is that the advertiser only pays for each customer that goes through the process. So while rates are high (good for the airport), the advertiser can very actively control the budget.

Right now, this program is limited to a single advertiser at a time, but Boingo expects to expand this to the point where passengers will get to choose from a variety of offers to get their free 15 to 20 minutes of internet access. As I said, this idea isn’t a new one. You’ve probably seen offers for a free iPod as long as you sit through a bunch of marketing promos or sign up for mailing lists. Since this is a much smaller giveaway, the commitment is much smaller and more reasonable as well.

Though Boingo hasn’t seen any airports that currently offer free wifi come over to use this model, the potential is there. They really see the big benefit here with the casual traveler. In tests, business travelers continue to pay for the service because they need to be online and they don’t want to bother with things like this. But the casual traveler may simply not go online to avoid having to pay. Given the option to watch a video or sign up for something, however, they’ve proven to be more interested.

Some tests have resulted in a 20 to 30 percent increase in wifi revenue for airports, and at times where airport revenues are dropping, this should be a welcome development.