Logging in on the runAirport and hotel kiosks give travelers the link to the Internet they left at homeMarch 18, 1998Web posted at: 12:54 p.m. EDT (1254 GMT) (CNN) -- First it was bank teller machines. Then cellular phones and laptops. Now it's easy online use of the Internet, thanks to public Internet access booths that are popping up in the stomping grounds of today's business traveler. Take notice of the public Internet access booth, also known as a PIA, cyberbooth or Internet kiosk. No matter what you call it, these online locations are ready to provide easy, inexpensive access to e-mail, the office and the Internet. "Business travelers are depending more and more upon real-time information to remain productive and to remain competitive," says Julie Jacobs, president of CyberFlyer. Currently, nine companies are vying for customers. Leading the pack are Cyberbooth, CyberFlyer, CyberOasis and Infone. Each minute online costs about 30 cents. Already, there are some 400 online kiosks in 24 airports throughout the United States and hotel chains such as Hilton. Analysts predict that number will grow to more than 350,000 right after the turn of the century. "This is a phenomenon that is taking over, and potentially e-mail can become the number one means of business communication," says Tim White, Infone's president and CEO. Cyberbooths could surpass the standard pay phone in usage, as well as lighten the traveler's load. "If you can eliminate the need for me to carry (a laptop) when I go to stay at the hotel, when I go through the airport, I will use it because I'd much rather have an account card than a seven-pound, $4,000 device that I'm lugging around with me," says one traveling businessman. Based on a report from CNN's Business and Travel and Beyond. The segment appears weekdays on Early Edition at 7 AM (ET) and on Morning News at 10 AM (ET). 
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