Airport wifi: the 15 free minutes the law requires for passengers

It is the law that placed wireless internet service at the Ports Authority’s passenger terminals and set, for passengers, a daily free minimum. It names the covered facilities and ordered the schedule of requests for proposals: first Luis Muñoz Marín, and for Rafael Hernández, Mercedita and the cruise piers of the Port of San Juan, to request all proposals on or before June 2008, with one hundred twenty (120) days to finalize the selection in each case.

Passengers at passenger terminals under the Ports Authority’s jurisdiction. The law expressly excludes from the free term the Authority’s employees, its concessionaires and their employees, and visitors not in travel transit at the airports or at cruise ship berthing.

• Being a passenger at a passenger terminal under the Ports Authority’s jurisdiction: the free privilege is only for passengers’ use.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

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   Step 1: Know where it applies

   The law orders the service at all passenger terminals under the Ports Authority’s jurisdiction, including Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, Rafael Hernández in Aguadilla, Mercedita in Ponce, the San Juan port facilities where cruise ships dock, and any other port facility under its administration.

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   Step 2: Count the fifteen minutes and how they are computed

   All proposals had to include the provision of a single mandatory free term of at least fifteen (15) minutes to system users once they access it in a natural day. Note two words: "single", meaning one free stretch, and "natural day", which is the unit by which it is counted.

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   Step 3: Remember the privilege belongs to the passenger only

   The law bounds it: this privilege shall be only for passengers’ use. It does not apply to Authority employees or to its concessionaires or their employees, or to visitors not in travel transit at the airports or at cruise ship berthing.

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   Step 4: Know that after fifteen minutes a fee may apply

   The law does not promise unlimited free internet. It says the Ports Authority, or its concessionaire, may charge the general public a competitive fee for these services, comparable with other airports using such an Internet system — and that, to the extent the service’s operational expenses and revenues allow, the Authority shall try to allow the passenger at least the first fifteen minutes free of charge. The free minimum was additionally set as a mandatory requirement of every proposal.

The Ports Authority administers the service and, under its 1942 organic act, its Executive Director was authorized to adopt and implement within ninety (90) calendar days a work plan to comply with this law. To carry out its purposes, the Authority was authorized to request, receive, match and administer local and federal funds, or to reach agreements through negotiations with companies providing these connection services.

• Expecting unlimited free internet: the mandatory minimum is a single term of at least fifteen minutes per natural day.
• Counting several free stretches in the same day: the law speaks of a single mandatory free term per natural day.
• Believing it applies to anyone in the terminal: the privilege is only for passengers’ use.
• Assuming the Authority cannot charge: it may charge a competitive fee comparable with other airports.
• Ignoring the law’s way out: if no competitive or reasonable proposal was received at a facility, the Agency was relieved of installing the service there.
• Taking the complaint to a consumer agency: the service belongs to the Ports Authority or its concessionaire.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Portal de Servicios del Gobierno de Puerto Rico (PR.gov)

  PR.gov

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov