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The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday has ruled in favor of Continental Airlines, which has argued it had the right to operate Wi-Fi hotspots at Boston-Logan International Airport under federal Over-the-Air Reception Devices (OTARD) rules.

 

Back in July 2004, Continental installed a Cisco 1200 wireless access point in its “President’s Club” frequent flyer lounge at Logan Airport. The Wi-Fi system used a pre-existing T-1 line and enabled passengers and certain Continental employees to access wireless Internet services. But in June 2005, Logan’s owner, Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport), demanded that Continental remove the Wi-Fi system on the basis that it is prohibited by the terms of Continental’s lease.

 

Continental replied to Massport that the provisions of the lease prohibiting the Wi-Fi system could not be enforced because of the Commission’s OTARD rules. But Massport tried to argue that the OTARD rules do not apply because of the availability of an airport-wide Wi-Fi backbone.

 

Today, the FCC (News - Alert) agreed with that Continental’s opinion, ruling “Massport’s restrictions on Continental’s use of its Wi-Fi antenna are pre-empted by the OTARD rules and we therefore grant Continental’s petition.”

 

“Today’s declaratory ruling reaffirms the Commission’s dedication to promoting the widespread deployment of unlicensed Wi-Fi devices. It clarifies that American consumers and businesses are free to install Wi-Fi antennas under our OTARD rules – meaning without seeking approval from their landlords – just as they are free to install antennas for video programming and other fixed wireless applications,” FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps said in a statement.

 

Continental Airlines lauded the decision, calling it a “resounding victory to the airline and to the consumer.”

 

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Robert Liu is Executive Editor at TMCnet. Previously, he was Executive Editor at Jupitermedia and has also written for CNN, A&E, Dow Jones and Bloomberg. For more articles, please visit Robert Liu's columnist page.