Document Type

Article

Abstract

According to most industry experts and researchers, wireless Internet access is seen as a promising market for mobile users in locations such as airports and other public venues [1]. According to the Gartner Group, 6,000 wireless Internet hotspots were installed in the world in 2002, 57% in Northern America and 14% in Europe. 15,000 hotspots should have been implemented in Europe by 2000, used by 11 million regular users and 12 million occasional users. Airports, because of the high density of travellers and the relatively long waiting times involved, are considered as key hotspot locations. Yet, consumption of such services is still lagging behind suppliers’ expectations. Why, and whether, consumers will use wireless Internet still remains unclear. This paper aims to contribute to answer both questions by defining a framework explaining the intent of use by consumers. To this end, we carried out market research, focused on executives attending public venues where wireless Internet services can be proposed. In this paper we first define the specific features of the wireless Internet access for airports. We then propose a framework explaining the intent to use wireless Internet services.

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