Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is seeking approval for a wireless Internet infrastructure upgrade contract to provide free Wi-Fi for its visitors.
If the proposal receives approval from the Atlanta City Council, the free Wi-Fi could be available by the end of March.
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Hartsfield-Jackson spokesman Reese McCranie said: "We’ve heard loud and clear that the lack of free Wi-Fi is an issue with passengers and we are aggressively seeking a solution."
Once the new system is set up and operational it can support 15,000 users at once, significantly higher than 4,000 user capacity supported by the current paid Wi-Fi system.
The airport has allocated $6m for this major project, with the funds coming from Department of Aviation.
Johnson Controls was chosen as the lowest bidder at $3.6m to upgrade the airport’s Wi-Fi infrastructure.
The airport plans to provide an incentive if the work is completed more quickly. Under the tiered agreement, if the project is completed in 30 days, it will cost $5.5m.
The Atlanta City Council vote is slated for next week. Airport officials expect a nominal drop in revenue as a result of free Wi-Fi.
Hartsfield-Jackson, which is located in Atlanta, Georgia, US, ranks as the one of the ten busiest airports in the US and serves as many as 250,000 passengers a day.
