The FINANCIAL — Denver International Airport (DEN) provides the fastest Wi-Fi among the world’s top airports, according to a recent independent analysis conducted by a leading internet speed test company.
“Free airport Wi-Fi is clearly an expectation travelers have at North American airports and many airports are rising to the challenge,” according to the global internet testing and analysis company, Ookla. “Once again,
Denver International’s Wi-Fi is fast. In fact, downloads at Denver’s airport are 27 percent faster than the last time we crunched the numbers. Even better, it’s the fastest Wi-Fi we’ve seen at any airport on the planet.”
According to Ookla, DEN offers free Wi-Fi with an average download speed of 78.22 Mbps, topping the list of more than 50 major airports tested across North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. DEN previously was listed as the fastest Wi-Fi among U.S. airports by Ookla. Updated testing conducted from March to May 2017 found that DEN’s Wi-Fi speed increased by 27 percent. Additionally, Ookla noted a 60 percent improvement in cellular download speeds at DEN.
Since 2007, DEN has provided free public Wi-Fi access – which does not contain pop-up ads or log-in screens – throughout the airport. Increased use of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops by the traveling public required upgrades to the underlying infrastructure. In 2015, DEN completed an initial upgrade to the public Wi-Fi infrastructure that serves the concourses, while the Wi-Fi services in the Jeppesen Terminal were upgraded in early 2016 – adding coverage to a space that previously had very little. These efforts amounted to a $2.5 million investment in wireless access points, antennas, controllers, and switches to new, state-of-the-art Wi-Fi technology.
“Over the last several years, DEN has invested significantly in its Wi-Fi infrastructure and services to provide our passengers with the highest quality, fastest internet connection possible,” said Robert Kastelitz, DEN’s senior vice president of technologies. “We know that passengers today want and expect a great Wi-Fi connection, which is why we continue to focus on providing leading-edge technology and blazing fast speeds.”
These upgrades have greatly increased the capacity of the Wi-Fi infrastructure, serving nearly 2.3 million customers in June, while reducing wireless congestion in concourse locations with heavy passenger traffic and dense seating. The design called for increasing the number of access points, to nearly 700 devices, and used specialized placement to afford consistent signal coverage throughout the public areas of each concourse and Jeppesen Terminal, with speed in mind. The new architecture and technologies deployed ensure that DEN has a robust, scalable public Wi-Fi solution with the ability to meet growing demand, which is all backed by 10Gb links to the internet.
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