BT waves goodbye to Wi-Fi in six top UK airports, including Heathrow and Stansted

As of February 28, BT has lost its Wi-Fi deal for six of the UK's biggest airports. Anyone turning up hoping to get online at Heathrow, Stansted, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen or Southampton will now have to pay out to American company Boingo, which won the contract from BAA in a competitive auction earlier this year.

A BT spokesperson said: "Boingo won a competitive BAA auction for exclusive internet access in the public areas of six BAA airports. This switchover was due to happen on February 28, from which date BT Openzone can no longer provide service. We recognise these are important sites, hence BT's email and web posting to make sure our customers are aware.

"BAA is the awarding body for the public areas and the decision was theirs. Per the customer email, BT continues to offer service at over a million UK locations including other major UK airports, airport hotel chains and transport links."

It's not great news for BT Openzone customers, who will now have to splash out for a service in these locations. However, it's not overly surprising that BAA - the owner of the airports - has gone to the highest bidder, when you consider the state the company is currently in: it reported a £822m pre-tax loss for 2009 just a week ago.

Of course, that isn't the line Ian Denchfield, head of commercial telecoms for BAA, took. He said: "Boingo’s proven track record as the global leader in neutral host airport Wi-Fi was crucial to our decision. The company’s dedication to world-class customer service and neutral host roaming, as well as longstanding success in network reliability and revenue growth, made them the obvious choice."

Boingo CEO and president David Hagan crooned: "BAA’s UK airports are the crown jewels of hotspots in the British Isles. We intend to bring our full complement of expertise to bear in ensuring travellers have an optimal Wi-Fi experience when flying into, out of, or through the UK and on to their final destinations. BAA’s decision brings those travellers access to not only six airports in the UK, but also more than 125,000 hotspots around the world with a single account."

There has been a lot of talk recently about communications companies starting to reel back some profit from broadband, whether fixed-line or mobile, and the loss of nice free perks to companies who'll charge a premium for a quality service looks like the most likely model. Unfortunately, broadband users are likely to see more of this kind of deal as time goes on, rather than less.