Travellers often have a lot of time to waste at airports, either because of the rules on how far before a flight they're supposed to arrive or because they're waiting to transfer from one plane to another. One way to help pass this time is to go online, but this is easier and less expensive in some airports than others. The best case scenario is when an international airport wifi connection is free.
Availability
Wifi isn't necessarily available at every international airport, although it is available at many major airports both in the U.S. and abroad, including Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Amsterdam, Singapore, London and Zurich. Airports in less developed countries may be less likely to provide wifi, as they have fewer services overall.
Cost
Some international airports are particularly generous and offer wifi for free, while others charge quite high fees, so it's a good idea to double check both price and availability before leaving on a trip. Even those airports that do have free wifi may only allow you to use it for free for a certain time. For example, in Munich travelers can get 30 minutes of free wifi, but then have to pay about $6.57 per hour after that. Thankfully, more than 90 percent of the 150 largest airports in the U.S. now offer wifi for free. However, in some cases premium access is necessary for very intensive activities, such as streaming videos. Another option, especially for elite business traveler, is to check if the airline lounge offers free wifi, as many do.
Ease of Access
Another consideration with international airport wifi is how easy it is to actually access that wifi. In some cases, travelers need to create and register for the service with temporary accounts, view advertisements, scan their passport or rent time at a kiosk.
Quality of WiFi
While it would be nice to be able to watch a video over wifi while waiting for a flight, the strength and speed of the signal can vary greatly from airport to airport, so this may not be possible. For example, among the busiest seven airports in the U.S., Denver has the best wifi speeds, which makes it possible to watch a standard video or movie but not an HD version.
Don't forget that you'll also need to keep devices charged, which may be easiest if you've got a charger that will turn one outlet into many. This makes it possible to approach people even when all the outlets are in use and ask if they'll share.
