The technology company Eurona Wireless Telecom, listed on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) has completed the implementation of the free and unlimited Internet via WiFi in the entire Aena network, after the start of the first phase of tests in October at twelve airports. The group will manage the service for two years to start with.
The airports included in this first group to get this service are Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona El-Prat, Palma de Mallorca, Málaga, Vigo, Santiago de Compostela, La Coruña, Tenerife North, Tenerife South, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
Eurona was awarded the implementation and operation of the free and unlimited service via WiFi in the Aena’s airport network, which includes 46 airports and two heliports. In addition, it will offer a paid “premium” service.
Spanish airports had been offering 30 minutes of free WiFi, a service used by more than 8 million passengers during 2014 in their whole network.
The new service, which might extend one more year, will be used by more than 200 million passengers a year. Aena had already announced that free WiFi would be offered with speeds that are four times faster thanks to the new public for bids contest.
The new service had to revamp the networks and connect high capacity lines in order to optimize the service for users, considering that Barajas and El Prat have half the passengers passing through the country each year.
Connectivity in airports
The change and implementation of free and high speed connection Internet connection for the entire airport network, places Aena and Spain ahead of other airports such as London-Gatwick (45 minutes), or Brussels, Lisbon, Dubai and Sao Paulo (30 minutes), according to OCU.
Aena had previously doubled up to 30 minutes the free WiFi in all the airport network, also doubling the connection speed and reducing the cost of the “Premium” service to 1.50 euros an hour.
According to a report from Kubi Wireless, part of the Eurona-Telecom Group and currently awarded the operation of Aena’s WiFi service, usage of the WiFi service in Spanish airports soared in 2014, reaching a peak during the summer months in airports such as Madrid-Barajas (+85%) and Barcelona-El Prat. The premium WiFi service also grew by 21% last year.
Eurona becomes the number one company to manage WiFi services per number of airports in the whole world. They manage 28 Spanish airports, via Kubi Wireless, acquired in 2013, responsible for managing multi-connections in large venues.
This contract reinforces the growth of their Hotspot business, which manages the connectivity of Aena’s WiFi, the WiFi service in several cities as well as the service in the hotel sector. The company will achieve revenue of 45 million euros over the next three years, as told by the Technology Company.
