Lounging - but still connected

By RICHARD WOOD

Telecom is gearing up to enter the Wi-Fi wireless network business with a three-month "hot-spot" trial in four Air New Zealand airport lounges.

The wireless Wi-Fi standard provides access to the internet at high speed from notebooks and handheld computers, in this case for up to 50m from the transmitter. Koru lounge trial users will share a 5 megabit per second internet connection at each site.

Air New Zealand ground product manager Matthew Cooper said Telecom approached the airline, but the trial would be mutually beneficial.

The service will be accessible only by one hundred selected executives, most of whom are Telecom enterprise customers who have been given free access for the period. As well as using the internet they will be able to communicate back to their company networks using Telecom's internet protocol remote office service.

Telecom general manager of network investment Stephen Crombie said that the trial would help Telecom test the service.

Cooper said it was inevitable that Air New Zealand would need Wi-Fi in its lounges. The trial would help the airline ascertain what form of charging would work and gauge the level of interest.

He said there was no ongoing obligation to use Telecom as the service provider and the trial would cover Auckland International as well as the Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch Domestic Koru lounges.