New York City’s airports need to get out of the Wi-Fi Stone Age — and offer free service like most of the country, Manhattan borough-president nominee Gale Brewer, told the Port Authority.
She introduced a City Council resolution that asked the agency to renegotiate its contract with Boingo Wireless and stop charging passengers who pass through La Guardia, JFK and Newark Liberty International airports.
“We all want our airports to be modernized,” said the Brewer, a Democrat. “It’s so basic.”
Currently, fliers have to cough up $4.95 an hour to go online at the three airports, or $7.95 a day.
The Port Authority signed a 15-year contract with Boingo that is almost up and can be renewed over the next six months for 10 years.
“This contract was [signed] in 1999. The world has changed tremendously in technology,” Brewer said. “How can you let another 10-year contract go to another company that is going to charge for Wi-Fi?”
She said that travelers might avoid New York City airports because there is currently no free Wi-Fi.
Brewer added that many companies would bid for free for the opportunity, and said the wireless Internet could be funded through ad dollars.
“Everybody else does it,” she said.
So far, 10 City Council members have signed on to the resolution.
A Port Authority spokesman said after a request for comment that the agency is exploring what amendments can be made to the existing contract.
The contract went up for renewal in August. Both Port Authority and Boingo split the money from the past agreement. The Port Authority gives the bulk of its cut to the airlines in its terminals.
Fifteen of the country’s 20 largest airports offer free Wi-Fi, according to the Global Gateway Alliance, an advocacy organization for New York and New Jersey airports that says the Boingo contract is from a bygone era.
US airports that already offer free Wi-Fi include those in Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Seattle and Los Angeles.
“We’re thrilled that Councilmember Brewer is working to bring free Wi-Fi to millions of passengers, but it’s outrageous that it takes the city legislature to force [what] is good for customers, for our brand and our economy,” said Global Gateway Alliance chief Joe Sitt.
A Boingo spokesman told The Post in August that the company has invested tens of millions of dollars in their networks at the three airports and that they are increasing its Internet connection feeding each airport to five times its current size.
Bill de Blasio and Joe Lhota’s mayoral campaigns said they were on board with the resolution.
“Councilmember Brewer is right; there is no reason that New York’s airports should lag behind the nation in offering free wireless Internet service,” said de Blasio spokesman Dan Levitan.
Lhota’s spokeswoman said he “supports it at airports and would like to see free Wi-Fi in all parts of the city eventually.”