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LAX Free Wifi Speed Test

LAX airport (Los Angeles International Airport) offers both free wifi and paid wifi to passengers. The passengers have to connect to the "_LAX Free Wifi" network to use the wifi at LAX (either free or paid).

For free wifi at LAX, there are a few restrictions:

  1. The wifi can be used for free for 45 minutes per session

  2. The passengers must watch an advertisement first at the beginning of the session

  3. The minimum free wifi speed is 5 MBPS.

For paid wifi, the passengers can use the wifi without any time limit and advertisement. The minimum wifi speed is higher at around >10 MBPS.

However, this wifi speed test focuses on the free wifi only. There are 6 rounds of speed tests: 3 local speed tests and 3 international speed tests.

The first 3 rounds of the speed test evaluates the local upload and download speed from LAX to the server in Los Angeles, California.

The LAX free wifi local speed test results

As you can see from the screenshots above. The average download speed is 16.83 MBPS and the average upload speed is 19.67 MBPS. The ping is really low and the jitter is mostly okay. This means that you could enjoy web browsing, text messaging, video streaming, video call, and gaming without any issues if the server is in Los Angeles.

The second 3 rounds of the speed test evaluates the international upload and download speed from LAX to the server in Tokyo, Japan.

The LAX free wifi international speed test results

As you can see from the screenshots above. The average download speed is 13.96 MBPS and the average upload speed is 12.18 MBPS. The ping is high and the jitter is mostly okay. This means that you could enjoy web browsing and text messaging without any issues for any services in Japan. However, if you do the video streaming, video call, and gaming for any services in Japan, you could see a little bit of delay, buffering, or lower video quality comparing to the service in Los Angeles.

In summary, you can expect a pretty good internet connection at 15.40 MBPS for download and 15.93 MBPS for upload from the free wifi at LAX. (The speed is 3 times higher than the advertised speed at 5 MPBS.) This should allow you to watch the high definition streaming video, use the video call, or even do some coding without any issues. But this speed isn't good for download or upload a really large file like > 1 GB since it could take like ~10 mins to complete the task.


Notes:

  • The test was conducted on August 3rd, 2018 at LAX Terminal 3.

  • The Samsung Galaxy S9+ and the Speedtest.net Android app were used to test wifi speed.