I was at the Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport on Monday. Preferring to be early rather than late, I had a bit of time to kill. Since I had my iPod, I thought I’d check for open Wi-Fi signals. I didn’t expect to find any, but there was one. It wasn’t really open however. The e‑mail client couldn’t connect. When I opened a browser, I was asked to log in or pay for time.
But wait! There was an option for a free ad-sponsored trial. Oh great, I thought, half the screen will be covered with flashing ads. No thanks. But it wasn’t that way at all. Watch a 15 second ad and get 15 minutes of free trial Wi-Fi access. You can do this four times (or was it two?) in any 24 period. That’s pretty cool!
It’s great that they managed to figure out a way to offer a trial to potential customers without making the experience completely annoying.
Anonymous
how timely is that comment, rick. erin and i were there also, and she had a new laptop to try out for the 1st time. it seems we missed the free 15 minute part, as we saw that it was $6 for one hour and took a pass. i guess the international airport in canada’s capital city can’t offer free wi-fi access, even though every coffee shop in the world and cheap motel seems to do so?