Boingo

Boingo Goes Flat Rate

Posted by samc on June 25th, 2007

Boingo Wireless launched today a new $39-per-month flat-rate global Wi-Fi service to provide business travelers with access to 100,000 Boingo hot spots.

Called Boingo Global, it will have no roaming charges or per-minute fees, reports Computer World.

“The days of per-minute charges and incremental roaming fees for Wi-Fi Internet access are over,” said Dave Hagan, president of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Boingo.

Travelers can purchase Boingo Global online and download the Go Boingo utility software for Windows that identifies partner hot spots. Go Boingo also allows a user to log in with a single click using the Boingo account.

Even 100,000 hot spots will not be enough to please some of the busiest business travelers, noted Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group.

“The problem with Boingo Global is that even at 100,000 hot spots, it’s not everywhere,” Kerravala said. “I’d pay $40 a month if it were access to all hot spots.”

Other companies, such as AT&T (above) and iPass offer business travelers connectivity to a variety of Wi-Fi hot spots and other connections such as Ethernet. For example, iPass provides its iPass Mobile Office service with per-minute charges to more than 77,000 hot spots globally.

T-Mobile HotSpot service is available at Starbucks and other places for as low as $29/month (with a service contract). T-Mobile claims customers can stay connected at over 45,000 locations worldwide including 8,025 T-Mobile HotSpot locations in the US and over 37,000 roaming locations in 25 countries.

Boingo Wireless, which claims it is the world’s leading wholesale network aggregator of neutral-host Wi-Fi networks, also recently announced a roaming agreement with FON, that is expected to an additional 130,000 hot spot locations - more than doubling the company’s network size.

FON hardware and software is used in some 130,000 Wi-Fi locations, operated by businesses and individuals. For Boingo users, these new locations provide additional Wi-Fi locations, complementing Boingo’s existing commercial locations. Google, Skype and other investors have invested $21.5 million in Fon.

In other hotspot news, Wayport and Yahoo! are joining forces to launch a Wi-Fi portal for the hospitality industry, with localized services and advertising provided by Yahoo!. As part of Yahoo!’s first nationwide Wi-Fi partnership, Wayport will have revenue opportunities from Yahoo!’s sponsored search, display advertising, and shopping services, and Wayport will share this revenue with hotels. Wayport has nearly 12,000 locations in 34 countries, at venues such as McDonalds and Hertz as well as many hotels.

McDonald’s says they have over 8,000 restaurants around the United States, with more than 15,000 Wi-Fi enabled restaurants around the Globe.

Note that the Wayport map (above) closely matches the AT&T map. That’s because AT&T uses Wayport for connectivity.

source : dailywireless.org