Service available now for hotspots in U.K. airport's departure lounges Travelers passing through London’s Heathrow airport now have a third choice for wireless Internet access. San Francisco’s Surf and Sip has just finished building hotspots in departure lounges of all four terminals at Heathrow. The service is available now but the official launch, which will include the addition of signs in the airport, is planned for January.Surf and Sip joins T-Mobile UK and BT Openzone, BT Group’s hotspot operator, at Heathrow but company founder Rick Ehrlinspiel hopes to attract customers on price and reliability. Users pay £5 ($8.80) per day to use the hotspots. That compares to £13 per day for BT Openzone hotspot access and £10 per day at T-Mobile.Surf and Sip has also built hotspots in departure lounges in Glasgow and Gatwick airports, Ehrlinspiel said. Surf and Sip, one of the oldest fee-based hotspot operators in the U.S., currently offers hotspots in 230 Cafe Neros throughout the U.K. and more than 200 locations in the U.S. Airports are considered prime locations by hotspot operators because of the volume of business people passing through each day, but airport authorities are notoriously difficult for operators to work with. Disputes have arisen over hotspots in Boston’s Logan airport and Dublin’s airport when airport authorities have tried to dictate which hotspot operators could offer service.Ehrlinspiel spent two years negotiating with BAA, the company that operates Heathrow and other U.K. airports before gaining approval to build there. He started by surreptitiously hanging an access point in a Cafe Nero location in Heathrow. The hotspot lasted for two months before BAA removed it. Shortly after, Ehrlinspiel approached BAA about building the hotspots in the airport and spent two years negotiating the contract. Technology Industry