Wi-Flies: DIA boasts the fastest network
If you’re at Denver International Airport, you must try the Wi-Fi service — if only to see what it’s like to be on the planet’s fastest airport network.
That rank is awarded by Ookla, the company behind the popular speedtest.net test site. DIA ranked at the top for free public Wi-Fi in North America for the second straight year. Not only did DIA boast the fastest download speed — 78.22 megabits per second — it was 27 percent faster than last year’s speed.
Ookla tested the free airport Wi-Fi speeds at 30 airports between March and May. And the results weren’t close.
Philadelphia International Airport took second, with speeds of 41.39 mbps. San Francisco International Airport, which ranked third, with 45.31 mbps, showed the greatest improvement with speeds 717.9 percent better than last year.
Ookla also tested cellular data service speeds. DIA ranked 10th, with a 59 percent improvement over last time. Average download speeds were 26.32 mbps. The airport in Vancouver, British Colum- bia, had the fastest cellular data service, with average download speeds of 59.84 mbps.
When DIA first won the honor, in January, DIA senior vice president for technologies Robert Kastelitz said the airport had spent about $2.5 million to upgrade all the wireless access points since 2015. It had also hired CenturyLink to supply two redundant 10 gigabit links for the whole airport, and it uses the latest Wi-Fi technology, 802.11ac, to get more compatible devices connected at faster rates.
DIA hasn’t done much since the last Ookla test, said DIA spokesman Heath Montgomery.
“We know it’s one of the most soughtafter amenities at the airport,” Montgomery said Thursday. “And it is reflective of the speeds we’re seeing internally. (Ookla’s) reports are saying we’re 27 percent faster than last time. It doesn’t get a whole lot better than that.”
Ookla has also recently tested in Africa, Europe and Asia.
DIA, by far, was the fastest, prompting Ookla to declare it “the fastest Wi-Fi we’ve seen at any airport on the planet.”