WiFi Roaming Please!

I was at Denver International Airport (DIA) this morning for an early flight back to NYC from a great Return Path board meeting at their Boulder Colorado office.

AT&T Wireless controls the Wifi at DIA.  I wanted to download my mail before hopping on the plane.  I am not an AT&T mobile subscriber so I had to pay by credit card.  That’s annoying in the first place, but I was willing.  But for some reason the AT&T system wouldn’t take any of my credit cards.  So I went without the Wifi.

Well that sucks.

Instead of ranting about AT&T Wireless’ shitty credit card system, I want to rant about the lack of roaming arrangements among the major Wifi carriers.  I am a T-Mobile wireless customer and I get T-Mobile Hot Spot thrown in.  I love that and visit many a Starbucks for Wifi instead of latte.

Why doesn’t AT&T and T-Mobile do a roaming deal between them so I can use my T-Mobile account at DIA?

Concourse Communications is the Wifi carrier who seems to own the rights to the NY Port Authority Airports.  I’d like them to make a deal with T-Mobile too.

If anyone out there knows why these deals don’t exist, please let me know. This is a major convenience issue that needs to be solved.

UPDATE: Several readers commented that I can use T-Mobile on AT&T.  I tried that today at Raleigh Durham, which is also a AT&T Wifi airport to no avail.  And the credit card thing didn’t work again.  Aargh!