Brussels Airport: 30 minutes of free WiFi

[Zorba]

Brussels Airport just tweeted they will offer 30 minutes of free WiFi as from Dec 6th, 2013.

BrusselsAirport: Together with @telenet and @UnifyCo, @BrusselsAirport offers 30 mins of free wifi as from December 6th. And yes, that is official. =)
https://twitter.com/brusselsairport/sta ... 3492915200

About time! WiFi was far too expensive for non-Telenet customers.

[b720]

Every where else it is 60 minutes! 30 min is definitely better than 0 min

[luchtzak]

sn26567 will be very very happy!!!

[sn26567]

sn26567 will be very very happy!!!

You don't know how many times I complained to Telenet and JvdC about it. It seems that my lobbying eventually succeeded!

That 10€/hr cost of the WiFi in BRU was a discrimination against half of the country that could not subscribe to Telenet.

[Airbus A330]

Finally! Great news!

[luchtzak]

sn26567 will be very very happy!!!

You don't know how many times I complained to Telenet and JvdC about it. It seems that my lobbying eventually succeeded!

:clap: :thumbup:

[RoMax]

Brussels Airport is a very good airport for its size, but the lack of free wifi was one of the weakest points in the passenger experience. Good to see this changing now. Though 30 minutes really is a minimum and many airports offer 60, but its already a very good start and a crucial step in upgrading passenger experience (like they'll also do with the Connector, though the primary reason for that building is a more efficient screening proces and more retail revenue).

[jan_olieslagers]

Perhaps BRU will promise nobody will have to wait more than 30 minutes for their flight, anyway?

[sn26567]

Some reactions:

Starbucks Belgium: Our customers will be happy with it!
Kris Van de Sande: ‏@BrusselsAirport @Telenet @UnifyCo Welcome to 1999!
Michelvst ‏@BrusselsAirport @telenet @UnifyCo 30 minutes per day/week/month/... ?
Cédric Roosen: ‏@BrusselsAirport @Telenet @UnifyCo nice but why a 100MB and longer period as other european airports?
pepijn palmans ‏@BrusselsAirport @Telenet 30' is poor. Be a leader, not follower and give full free wifi to your passengers ! 30' was cool years ago !
Brussels Airport: ‏30 mins is the average time of actual use by our passengers. Send a tweet, check your mail, 4sq, use the app...
Karel Uyttendaele: people still have to pay for Wifi while waiting for a plane? That's so 1999!

In brief: a good start, but not enough... or: too little, too late...

[Zorba]

30 minutes is indeed quite short.
I also hope the current system has enough bandwith to handle the extra users. I remember in Doha the WiFi was useless because of that.

[sn26567]

I was wondering who is @UnifyCo. Well, here is the answer: @UnifyCo is the Twitter address of Unify, formerly Siemens Enterprise Communications, which "delivers the world’s most secure and engaging communications solutions for the new way to work". They will probably be in charge of installing the necessary hardware.

[quixoticguide]

In the USA there isn't free WiFi in many airports. Like ORD or MEM.

[sn26567]

In the USA there isn't free WiFi in many airports. Like ORD or MEM.

I agree, but at ORD the fee is $6.95 for a 24-hour period; that's nothing compared to the €10 that Telenet asks for one hour at BRU.

[quixoticguide]

And in ORD there is also 30 min free WiFi if you download an app.
But unfortunately this is not available in Belgian App Store.

[quixoticguide]

there's unlimited free WiFi in Dhaka Airport

[sn26567]

there's unlimited free WiFi in Dhaka Airport

And also in Lyon, as we've just experienced. The Lyon system is something that BRU should apply: you get 30 minutes of free WiFi (with whatever speed is available at that time), which you can renew indefinitely by periods of 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can buy fast WiFi, but I didn't check the rate, since free WiFi was fast enough to have a Skype conversation.

[Tomskii]

Well I have telenet so never had issues for the Wi-fi but 30 minutes is indeed better than nothing.

[sn26567]

Yesterday around 18:00, coming back from vacation, I wanted to use the free WiFi of BRU while waiting for my bags. After filling in the long and cumbersome Telenet questionnaire, I got nothing at all. I tried several times, and after 30 minutes I got the message that my time had expired. Not very useful.

I tweeted a complaint to Brussels Airport and Telenet, and it's only today at 11:00 that BRU realised they had indeed a problem: "Due to a technical problem, our 30 min #freewifi is down at the moment. Please hang in there, we do everything we can to solve this asap."

It seems that the problem has been solved one hour later: "30 minutes #freewifi portal is up and running again. Sorry for the inconvenience it may have caused."

And if I had not reacted?

[Acid-drop]

For some reason, i had only 3G and not 4G in the terminal last week.
Strange also no ?

[airtrainer]

Yesterday around 18:00, coming back from vacation, I wanted to use the free WiFi of BRU while waiting for my bags. After filling in the long and cumbersome Telenet questionnaire, I got nothing at all. I tried several times, and after 30 minutes I got the message that my time had expired. Not very useful.

Still waiting for your bags 1/2 hour later ? Gosh

I also tried last month while waiting for my flight and it didn't work, even LGG has free wifi and not limited to 30min !