If you’ve ever travelled through Logan Airport in Boston in the past few years, the usual places for WiFi service like the Admiral’s club have been turned over to wireline only.

The airport’s deal with Comcast and their own branded service (Massport) made the landlord (Massport) force preferential treatment of WiFi service to their own service, at the exclusion of all others. This is contrary to the FCC goals for unlicensed spectrum and the FCC ordered Massport to back down.

Well, the story goes (see Mass High Tech) Continental told Massport to stick it and deployed their own WiFi AP in their lounge, offering it FREE to the guests. A ruling dated October 17.2006 by the Federal Communications Commission upheld the right of any tenant to deploy their own WiFi service (unlicensed spectrum is for all of us), regardless of the restrictions (there were a few listed in the decision, but they don’t apply in this case).

Let’s hear it for Continental! Let’s hear it for WiFi!

Here’s what the commissioners said in support of the ruling:

a. Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein

b. Commissioner Michael J. Copps

WiFi at Logan is now free courtesy of Google. Of course, to get a reasonable speed you should pay for the service since there are so many many laptop users in the passenger lounges all fighting for a fair kick at the Access Point.

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