In May this year, passengers aboard a Lufthansa flight from Munich to Los Angeles were the first in the world to be able to connect to the internet using broadband mid-flight, thanks to ‘Wi-Fi’, or wireless, technology.
The airline expects to offer travellers this service on all its long-haul planes by the end of next year. It marks the beginning of yet another new era in mobile communications and suggests that the arguable ‘ideal’ of working ‘anytime, anywhere’ is gradually becoming a reality for business travellers. But while planes, trains and hotels are slowly realising the need to offer 24-hour working facilities in order to remain competitive, it is clear that some companies are more ahead of the game than others...
AIRBORNE SURFING
While Lufthansa is one of the airlines leading the way, Japan Airlines, SAS and Korean Air are also getting ready to roll out broadband in the air. It even threatens to be at affordable prices: research by Forrester revealed that 38% of frequent travellers were willing to pay at least $25 (£14) per flight for broadband access. Lufthansa’s service is charged at $10 (£5.60) for half an hour or $29.95 (£16.78) for the entire duration of a long-haul flight. As a passenger, you simply need a Wi-Fi enabled laptop (or a laptop with a wireless LAN card inserted) or a PDA, and you can simply swipe your credit card from your seat and away you go, providing you travel business class.
Wi-Fi technology is at the heart of many of the changes taking place in business travel. BT’s Openzone, which is behind many of the wireless ‘hotspots’ around the country, has enabled places as geographically diverse as McDonalds in Aberystwyth, the Buckerell Lodge Hotel in Exeter, Costa Coffee in London’s Camden Market and the Welcome Break service station in Coventry to offer wireless internet access to travellers. In total, BT has enabled more than 2,000 hotspots around the UK, from payphone kiosks to pubs and airports (including certain areas of Gatwick and Heathrow Airports), with most hotspots extending from 70 to 100 metres.
To connect while in a BT Openzone ‘hotspot’, travellers need a Wi-Fi enabled laptop (or wireless LAN card), and can access the service by opening an account with BT, buying prepay usage vouchers, or online via credit or debit card. Other Wi-Fi operators such as The Cloud and Ready to Surf also provide hotspots in the UK. Costs range from £6 for an hour’s usage to £80 monthly subscription for unlimited access.
Many airlines are also introducing Wi-Fi in order to offer internet access in their lounges. British Airways, for example, has recently installed BT Openzone access points in 80 of its main customer lounges around the world. Steve Andrews, managing director of BT Mobility said, “We see airports and airport lounges as perfect locations for BT Openzone access points. Flying, whether for business or pleasure, usually means spending some time waiting. Now customers have the opportunity to wirelessly log on to their company intranet to download the latest version of a presentation, cost-effectively at broadband speeds, to catch up on their emails, or simply to surf the web – making them as efficient as when they’re in the office.” Costs range from £10 for 120 minutes use, or there is a pay-as-you-go option.
But if you are a regular traveller and planning on investing in a Wi-Fi enabled laptop to take advantage of the growth in hotspots, bear a few things in mind before making your purchase. James Brown, IBM’s UK brand manager of the personal computing division, says: “Consider size and weight of equipment when manoeuvring in aeroplane aisles. Baggage allowance for hand luggage on many commercial flights is 5kg.” Brown adds that your choice of equipment should be as robust as possible if you are constantly on the go: “Overhead compartments on aeroplanes are often cramped. When using notebooks, for example, it is advisable to have one made with material such as magnesium for the top and extra-strength titanium for the base, for added protection.”
While Virgin Atlantic has yet to embrace Wi-Fi, the airline does recognise business travellers like to stay connected while waiting for a flight – but you have to pay a premium. Only upper-class travellers have access to the Virgin Revivals lounge on check-in at Heathrow’s Terminal 3, which offers phones, internet access and fax facilities. But a flight from London to New York is approximately £400 with Virgin’s economy class, and jumps to approximately £4,000 when flying Upper Class, so be sure to ask yourself how necessary it is to join this particular mile-high club before getting carried away with the novelty.
VIRTUALLY ON TRACK
Britain’s trains get a lot of stick and rarely have anything to celebrate, but they too are keeping up with the information revolution. Research carried out by internet provider Broadreach Networks in May revealed as many as 78% of rail passengers would use wireless broadband internet access if it were available on the train, with respondents prepared to pay a flat fee of between £5 and £12 for the service. This is reassuring news for Great North Eastern Railways (GNER), which operates between London’s Kings Cross, Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland. The company is currently spending £30m on a total re-fit of its entire fleet – its single biggest investment in the East Coast Main Line since it started operating in 1996.
As part of the re-fit, trains will have power sockets installed near every seat and, following a trial that Alan Hyde, GNER’s corporate affairs manager, claims was “successful in terms of passenger feedback and in technological terms”, the company is also introducing Wi-Fi as part of the overhaul. It is the first UK rail company to offer the service. “We believe the initiative has the potential to transform UK travel by turning train time into productive working time, encouraging more business people to travel by train in the future,” added Hyde.
Competitive rail prices and Wi-Fi across all classes of travel will certainly help rail companies to compete with their airborne competitors, particularly in domestic and European travel, which has been turned on its head by budget airlines.
Regular traveller Campbell Williams, head of strategic marketing EMEA at Mitel Networks, is likely to welcome the move with open arms. “All I need is broadband access from anywhere, and I can gain secure access to my corporate network, make voice calls, video calls, participate in audio conferences, and share files and windows with my colleagues. I become my own branch office wherever I am. Put simply, Wi-Fi will help me do my job more effectively.”
Eurostar has also cashed in on the healthy market of business travellers taking short trips to France for meetings. Its Waterloo business lounge, includes free internet access (via your own laptop or via a stand-alone terminal) and complimentary phone and fax facilities.
Dorothea Arndt, pan-European director of search and distribution at Kelkoo, Europe’s largest online shopping comparison site, is one fan. “We are headquartered in Paris so I am a frequent user of the Eurostar. When using Eurostar’s Frequent Traveller lounge, I find it enormously helpful that I can use their PC terminals with free internet access.”
Eurostar is also planning to follow in GNER’s footsteps by introducing Wi-Fi on its trains. Currently trialling it as part of its tenth-anniversary refurbishment, the company is planning to roll Wi-Fi out to its 27-strong fleet, starting in autumn. The process is expected to take approximately six months. Virgin Trains also caters well for business travellers waiting to board – but as with Virgin Atlantic, only if you are prepared to pay extra for first class. Its lounges at London Euston, Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester Piccadilly, Birmingham New Street and Coventry offer telephone points, fax, modem facilities and, since March this year, Wi-Fi (using the Ready to Surf service). Until September, users can log on free of charge.
ROOM SERVICE
But getting there is only part of it. Once ensconced in a hotel that describes itself as ‘fully equipped for the business traveller’, it is helpful to find that your accommodation comprises more than a sturdy desk, chair and complimentary copy of the Financial Times. While Xavier Adam, founder of Xavier Adam Public Relations, claims that “it is best not to rely on hotels’ technology, as you are not in control and it can be expensive”, hotels are more intuitive than they used to be and some have taken great strides in meeting guests’ technology needs. But, if staying in touch with your business is important, it’s worth asking a few questions before booking.
Nominated in the Best of Business category in the Observer/Guardian Travel Awards this year, City Inn hotels, with branches across the country in Westminster, Bristol, Birmingham and Glasgow, have introduced a new ‘High Flyer’ package. This is aimed squarely at business travellers. All its branches have ISDN access in the bedrooms, allowing you to plug your laptop in and access the internet at typical offpeak telephone rates, while the Westminster branch even offers free broadband access to ‘High Flyers’.
Others take this one step further. The Shire Hotel chain, which has hotels from Bristol to Manchester and Hampshire to Leeds, installed wireless internet access right across its chain of hotels last year, allowing guests to connect from its meeting rooms, bedrooms and restaurants. It has met with a positive response from business customers. “By monitoring sales over the past 12 months, specific wireless sales transactions show gradual growth,” said Darren Heaton, IT Manager at Shire Hotels. “Feedback we have received from some regular corporate clients is that they have purchased wireless LAN network cards for their laptops, purely because our hotels now provide wireless access.”
More than 100 branches of the Radisson SAS chain of hotels also offer Wi-Fi in their bedrooms, meeting rooms and restaurants. In addition, Radisson also guarantees ‘secure’ connectivity for guests wanting to access their corporate net- work, thanks to iPass Enterprise Ready certification which allows the service to interact with the company’s own virtual private networks, personal firewalls and anti-virus protection systems. Doug Loewe, managing director for EMEA at iPass commented: “We’re finding that, particularly for business travellers, this is becoming the norm, rather than an additional service. secure Wi-Fi access means that rather than disrupting their working schedules and preventing them doing their jobs, business travellers can continue to communicate seamlessly and effectively as if they were in the office.”
More and more chains have spotted the growing expectation for seamless wireless access. 54 Hilton hotels in the UK now offer wireless broadband access via BT Openzone, with many also offering terminals with high-speed internet access in individual rooms, while Corus Hotels, which has branches from Exeter to Glasgow, has recently equipped 33 of its branches with BT Openzone access points.
Further afield, Corinthia Hotels International has implemented wireless internet access in the communal areas of its Lisbon hotel – one of the official hotels for Euro 2004 – and its St Petersburg branch is expected to offer wireless access from next year. So are overseas hotels keeping up with the great technological strides that the UK is making?
Rebecca Jones, head of post-sales development at Lastminute.com, is a frequent traveller to Paris and her experience of French hotels to date has been a positive one. “Most of the four-star places or above are pretty good. I stayed in a hotel called Villa Eugenie recently, which is a nice place and now offers Wi-Fi which is really helpful,”. Jones was also impressed by the Radisson hotel she stayed at in India earlier this year. “It was brilliant. It had a business centre and somewhere to plug into the internet in your room, as well as a big desk where you could spread everything out.”
Alex Smith, sales director at global events company, Koolswater International and a regular traveller, believes China is also moving with the times. “As a business traveller to cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, I have found a level of service which competes favourably with the rest of the world and even outperforms many western European cities.”
Smith finds that, because he is often travelling long-haul, laptops can sometimes be a burden to carry, and so the business centres offered in many hotels in the US, China and Australia can be even more useful than Wi-Fi hotspots. Even the language-barrier in China doesn’t cause problems. “In addition to being provided with broadband access and fax machines, foreign business guests are also supplied with English-speaking secretaries to assist them with their communications.” Some establishments, such as the five star Palace Peninsula and the Traders Hotel, both in Beijing, even offer free broadband access in every bedroom.
But wherever you choose to stay and however you choose to travel, it’s reassuring to know that the clear thoughts you have while travelling can now be noted down and sent back to the office to be actioned while they’re still fresh.
