Washington D.C. (including Baltimore) - Free wifi coming to DCA & IAD

Not tomorrow exactly, but sometime "this spring", according to numerous stories such as http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/2010/12/free-wifi-coming-dulles-reagan-national-airports

Thank goodness! I am always in and out of DCA or IAD, and rely on my Blackberry for internet. That's one thing I love on the return trips from PIT, however. I'm always at the airports early, so wifi will be nice. Thank you MWAA :-P

I'm now hearing that April 15, 2011 will be the changeover date to free wifi. Hope that turns out to be true.

Excellent ... just in time for my next trip! :D

It was confirmed today that IAD and DCA will have FREE WIFI starting 4/15.

Great news - I enjoyed this at SFO the last few times that I've been...now it won't be so bad to wait around at either airport :)

-jeremy

Well, this'll certainly affect my decision when it comes time to consider renewing my airport club membership . . .

I've heard (no confirmation yet) that the Red Carpet Clubs expect to be able to provide much better (faster?) wifi to compete with free airport wifi. Club membership might still be valuable.

Good news. Just be careful with free wifi. I got a nice trojan loaded onto my system the last time I did free airport wifi - at IAH.

Would be great if the signal reached as far as Gravelly Point. :D

Would be great if the signal reached as far as Gravelly Point. :D

Or my condo, exactly .45 miles from the end of the shorter runway - but that's from a runway...not the terminal. :)

Still, it will be nice to have this for sure at the airport...especially at long connections at IAD!

-jeremy

Posted this in the UAL forum because I thought it would be of most interest to UAL people since A/C/D terminals are UA, but evidently I made the wrong posting choice. :(

Anywho, free WIFI went live at IAD on 4/15. I was at the airport this morning and found the signal pretty good throughout. Use the AT&T network.

Does the AT&T landing page still identify your location as "Dulles International Airport, Baltimore, Maryland" ?

Thanks, Annandaler, for yet another scoop about MWAA. You've run up an impressive track record [tips cap]

Thanks, Annandaler, for yet another scoop about MWAA. You've run up an impressive track record [tips cap]
Agreed entirely ... tips bowler hat, being British!

I hope to meet up for a beer next month ;)

I tried it yesterday (4/21) from concourse A and boy was it slow!! Speed test was 71 down, 145 up.

Using it yesterday (4/21) by gate C8.

At 12:30pm it was working very well (concourse almost empty). Didn't do a speed test, but I was downloading/installing lots of updates on a friend's laptop.

By 3:30pm, with the concourse starting to fill for international departures, downloads had slowed dramatically. But straightforward email was still easily handled.

Using it yesterday (4/21) by gate C8.

At 12:30pm it was working very well (concourse almost empty). Didn't do a speed test, but I was downloading/installing lots of updates on a friend's laptop.

By 3:30pm, with the concourse starting to fill for international departures, downloads had slowed dramatically. But straightforward email was still easily handled.

I hope the BA Lounge at the B-Gates is on a different network!!

Tested from my tragically basic iPod [yes, iPod] on 18 May from the BA Galleries Lounge at the B-Gates. I think I was offered 6+ connections.

It worked fine, given that everything using an iPod is glacially slow ;)

was outside gate 11 and though the connection was a bit slow, it worked. I had to connect to the "attwifi" one.

was outside gate 11 and though the connection was a bit slow, it worked. I had to connect to the "attwifi" one.

Curious as to where you were... There is no B11 gate - nor is there an A11 gate.

For some reason, connecting to "attwifi" sometimes works better than connecting to "Dulles Airport Wifi" - even though they are both working off the same hardware throughout the airport.

Has anyone been able to speedtest the airport wifi against RCC wifi at the same time?

I'll have 4 hours today between BDL-IAD and IAD-EZE...hoping to get some work done sans paying...

See the dc forum for this thread that indicates likely http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/washington-d-c-including-baltimore/1161318-free-wifi-coming-dca-iad.html