Connecting at London's Heathrow versus Hong Kong International

On my recent trip to Barclona, I experienced the dramatically different approach that two of the world's airports have to wireless internet access, a convenience sought by an increasing number of world travelers. While Heathrow Airport in London sought to entice users to pay one euro for ten minutes of internet access, Hong Kong International Airport provided it for free and even offered a service to charge your notebook or netbook.Needless to say, I think Heathrow has missed the boat on this one. Eventually I

suspect that they will come to see the value of providing airport-wide free access to the internet and the short sighted nature of their attempts to "nickel and dime" any customer passing through the airport.

The two pictures embedded with this post tell the whole story. Just click on the thumbnails to the left to see a larger version of the picture.

Note that the first picture is from an internet area at Heathrow and contains the chairs with "Internet Here!" on the background. The screen displaying "free access" in this picture is intended to entice users for what is really a paid access service. A link on it leads to a small set of public service pages.