Free Phone International Phone Calls in Airports Using Google Voice

According to different sources, Google will be experimenting with a new kind of service at the Orlando International Airport. According to the proposal given to the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA), there would be faux-British telephone booths labeled “Google Voice” in the airport terminals. Travelers around the globe would be able to make unpaid overseas phone calls within a certain time. Google would be sharing the ad revenue with the GOAA of about $125,000 for the initial year.

With a hotspot in the airport, users will be look at a home page that would let them interact with a Google Earth-style map of the entire airport to find duty free shops, restaurants, and services. Like Google Earth, users will be able to zoom in close enough to see 360-degree photo images. Flight information will also be provided through this service. Flight schedule updates and live tracks of flights would allow people to watch their incoming plane’s progress.

Google also proposed new mobile phone applications for airport-related information such as ticketing, parking, maps and flight schedules, as well as airport concessions deals.

The Internet search engine giant will be selling advertisements, likely to national and international businesses and also stores within the airport.

If everything well, the service could be implemented this Fall, said Jim Rose, GOAA senior director of business services.

“It goes beyond just the link to the Internet,” Rose said. “This really provides an opportunity for a test bed. We can try different approaches.”

The is trying for the two-year deal as a experimental project. That allows the deal to go forward without any requirement to seek competitive proposals from other Internet companies.

Google hopes to roll out similar packages at other locations, said spokesman Andrew Pederson. But nothing has been finalized, including in Orlando, he said.

For Google, it’s an opportunity to expose its brand and sell advertisements to a captive audience of presumably upper class travelers, some of whom may be waiting for hours.

“It’s in the spirit of experimentation,” Pederson said. “The high-level concept of this project: there are a lot of people who have been accessing the Internet in airports for a long time. How can we make that experience better?”

For most people, the Google connection would be found through the airport’s Wi-Fi home page, and the Web pages that follow. Those pages would be branded with Orlando International Airport’s logo.

Advertisements would show up, including Google ads. But there would be no pop-ups, and advertising would be “tasteful, non-offensive and family safe,” according to Google’s proposal.

“We’ll be experimenting with a variety of things,” Pederson said. “I expect we’ll be tweaking and seeing what works best.”

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