Free Phone International Phone Calls in Airports Using Google Voice
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Based on various sources, Google will be experimenting with a new service at the Orlando International Airport. According to the proposal given to the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (or GOAA), there would be faux-British telephone booths labeled “Google Voice” in the airport terminals. Visitors from many different countries would be able to make unpaid international phone calls within a certain time. Google would be sharing the ad revenue with the GOAA of about $125,000 for the initial year.
With the free WiFi service, users will be able to see a home page that would let them interact with a Google Earth-style map of the entire airport to find duty free shops, restaurants, and services. Like Google Earth, users will be able to zoom in close enough to see 360-degree photo images. Flight information will also be provided through this service. Flight schedule updates and latest tracks of flights would allow people to view their incoming plane’s progress.
The company also proposed new applications for mobile phones for airport-related information such as parking, maps, flight schedules and ticketing, as well as airport concessions deals.
The search engine company will be selling advertisements, likely to national and international firms as well as stores within the airport.
If everything is on schedule, the features could be introduced this Fall, said Jim Rose, GOAA senior director of business services.
“It goes beyond just the link to the Internet,” Rose said. “This really provides an opportunity for a test bed. We can try different approaches.”
The aviation authority is pursuing the two-year deal as a pilot project. That allows the deal to go forward without any requirement to seek competitive proposals from other Internet companies.
Google wishes to introduce similar offerings at different airports, said spokesman Andrew Pederson. But negotiation is still in progress, including in Orlando, he said.
For Google, it’s a chance to expose its name and sell ads to a interested audience of presumably upper class travelers, some of whom may be waiting for hours.
“It’s in the spirit of experimentation,” Pederson said. “The high-level concept of this project: there are a lot of people who have been accessing the Internet in airports for a long time. How can we make that experience better?”
For most travelers, the Google connection would be found at the airport’s Wi-Fi home page, and the Web pages that follow. Those pages would be branded with Orlando International Airport’s logo.
Ads would be shown, including Google ads. But there would be no pop-ups, and advertising would be “tasteful, non-offensive and family safe,” according to Google’s proposal.
“We’ll be experimenting with a variety of things,” Pederson said. “I expect we’ll be tweaking and seeing what works best.”
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