davidb@pacer.com (David Barts) (03/15/90)
> Unfortunately for such a modern airport, Atlanta's was completed > before the advent of laptops (or even PCs) and therefore doesn't have > many of the technological conveniences which are now almost necessary > in the Nineties. Well, Sea-Tac was completed sometime in the mid *sixties*, and somehow they did manage to install laptop facilities. My guess is that if Atlanta got enough complaints from laptop users, they'd find a way to install the facilities. David Barts Pacer Corporation davidb@pacer.uucp ...!uunet!pilchuck!pacer!davidb
king%cell.mot.COM@uunet.uu.net (Steven King) (03/15/90)
In article <5083@accuvax.nwu.edu> bill@shannon (Bill Berbenich) writes: >[explanation that Atlanta's lack of dataports is due to age of the airport] >[...] are getting RJ-11 connections in their lounges, but to retrofit an >entire airport or terminal would likely be too expensive to be >worthwhile to the airlines or airport commission at this time. It wouldn't be necessary to retrofit an entire airport to pull this off. The Mallworld ... er, Woodfield Hyatt in Schaumburg IL has some souped-up pay phones near its function rooms. These computerized wonders include, you guessed it, RJ-11 connectors! It shouldn't be a difficult matter to install a few of these anywhere that has existing pay phones. If all you do in life are important things, then | Steve King (708) 991-8056 you'll never have any fun -- unless having fun | ...uunet!motcid!king is an important thing to you. | ...ddsw1!palnet!stevek
carroll@beaver.cs.washington.edu> (03/16/90)
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
Leonard P Levine <len@csd4.csd.uwm.edu> (03/16/90)
> Unfortunately for such a modern airport, Atlanta's was completed > before the advent of laptops (or even PCs) and therefore doesn't have > many of the technological conveniences which are now almost necessary > in the Nineties. Even Milwaukee has had a small (6 station) office space with RJ-11 connectors available to the public, and has had one for more than a year now. If you ask any airport person, they will guide you to it. + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + | Leonard P. Levine e-mail len@cs.uwm.edu | | Professor, Computer Science Office (414) 229-5170 | | University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Home (414) 962-4719 | | Milwaukee, WI 53201 U.S.A. FAX (414) 229-6958 | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +