The speed of free airport WiFi, a critical amenity for travelers -- both pleasure and business -- keeps getting faster, except at Houston's two major airports.
Bush Intercontinental and Hobby had the worst WiFi speeds of the nation's 50 largest airports, according to the latest annual survey conducted by Ookla, developer of the Speedtest apps and website. Their download speeds are so slow, they wouldn't qualify as broadband even under the Federal Communications Commission's older standard, which was 25 megabits per second, set back in 2015. In March the FCC raised it to 100 Mbps.
This is despite the fact that the Houston Airport System last year announced that a big upgrade to WiFi was coming. Chronicle reporter Dug Begley wrote in June 2023 that the system planned $4 million in improvements, upgrading more than 600 access points in the city's airports to WiFi 6, a network standard that is capable of speeds 2.5 times faster than the previous protocol.
Based on Ookla's survey and my own experiences this year flying out of Bush and Hobby airports, the speeds are indeed disappointing, particularly compared to others around the United States. In fact, the Ookla study actually called out Houston's airports for slow downloads.
"Specifically, two airports (William P. Hobby Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport) showed median download speeds over WiFi of less than 25 Mbps," the report states, adding that they are the only two locations below that threshold. In last year's report, five airports had median download speeds below 25 Mbps.
Bush's media download speed was 22.9 Mbps, while Hobby's was 21.46.
Ookla's survey was crafted using data gathered during the third quarter of 2024, and since then some of the improvements that are part of the Houston airports project have been switched on. More on that in a moment.
The fastest airports had speeds that were many times faster that Houston's. The report showed Norman Y. Mineta San José International Airport in California had the fastest download speeds, at 195.89 Mbps, significantly less than 2023's result of a whopping 259.37 Mbps. No. 2 was Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu with 181.84 Mbps, and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport was third with 176.29 Mbps.
Houston can take some comfort in that no Texas airports on the list cracked the top 10 for download speeds, though the Dallas and Austin airports' WiFi networks were much faster than Houston's. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport clocked download speeds of 107.14 Mbps while Love Field had 90.15 Mbps. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport registered 71.57 Mbps. San Antonio International Airport was among a handful of big airports for which there was not enough data to be ranked.
The survey relies on consumer use of the Speedtest app and website by travelers who check connection speeds while in airports. As an obsessive user of Speedtest on my iPhone, I certainly have contributed to the effort over the years.
For an example, as I waited to board a Southwest Airlines flight to Utah in May, I checked the airport WiFi speed in Hobby. I got 23.7 Mbps download and 19.7 upload speeds. Typically when I see speeds that sluggish, I'll fall back to the 5G cellular data on my phone, which typically hits 100 Mbps downloads or more for me at Hobby.
Ookla's report also surveys mobile speeds. Houston's airports use a shared cellular data system that works with the major carriers, a spokesperson said. At Bush, the median mobile data download speed was 72.75 Mbps, and at Hobby 69.38 Mbps, according to Ookla.
I asked the Houston Airport System about the report, and they said Ookla's third-quarter data no longer reflects the current state of WiFi at Bush and Hobby. While 25 Mbps was indeed the top speed at the airports last quarter, the Airport System recently flipped the switch on its promised improvements and that "as of today," download speeds capped at 50 Mbps, the spokesperson said.
Even then, most of the airports on Ookla's list deliver faster download speeds than those in Houston.
Many things can affect airport WiFi performance, including the number of people trying to use the network at once, the design and layout of the airport, the internet infrastructure and placement of the various access points, among other factors. Houston's airports are among the busiest in the nation, so balancing network congestion is certainly a challenge.
In July, August and September of this year, a combined 16 million travelers passed through Bush and Hobby, according to airport data. Most were carrying smartphones, many were using laptops, and a subset of both were likely connected to the free WiFi. (The airport spokesperson couldn't immediately provide the number of WiFi connections made during those months.)
"Everyone walking through an airport has at least one if not two or three devices that are using data," said Matt Swartz, a distinguished engineer with networking giant Cisco, who specializes in implementing WiFi in locations such as sports stadiums and airports. "The amount of data going through these devices is huge."
Swartz said one of the challenges in an airport is that WiFi use tends to be "bursty" as passengers flow in off arriving jets and others fill up gate areas waiting for departing flights. Deplaning passengers in particular can put a big load on a network.
"For example, international passengers have been sitting on the plane for eight, nine, 10 hours and all that data is queuing on their phones. It just gets kind of backed up in the air," he said. "When they get off the plane, all that data gets dumped onto the network at once."
Houston's airports just recently switched on WiFi 6, but are still two generations behind. WiFi 6E is approaching mainstream adoption, and Apple, Samsung, Google and other smartphone-makers have introduced new handsets that use WiFi 7, which is designed to better handle busy network environments. Many newer Windows PCs also support it.
Most airports that upgrade will go right to WiFi 7 as a result, Swartz said -- if they can afford it.
"Airports get hamstrung by other things that aren't technical, like budgets," he said. "Governments say, 'We have just this much money.' You just have to make it work."