May 24th, 2007
Boingo Wireless to get big boost from FON alliance
Wi-Fi network operator/aggregator Boingo Wireless announces this morning it is teaming up with FON in an endeavor that will provide Boingo users with access to some 130,000 Wi-Fi hot spot locations.
The project will more than double Boingo’s size.
This isn’t just your usual alliance. FON’s hotspots come into being from businesses and individuals who add their own hot spots to the FON community in exchange for the right to roam on other FON community locations for free or at a reduced rate.
Availability to the FON network will equip Boingo Mobile users access to FON’s hotspots throughout the world for a flat $7.95 a month.
Access to the FON network will also benefit users of Boingo Mobile, the company’s service for Wi-Fi-enabled handsets. Boingo Mobile users pay $7.95 per month for unlimited access to hot spots worldwide to make handset-based VoIP calls, do IM, or even surf the Web.
Losers in this deal: proprietary Wi-Fi services like T-Mobile that charge you more for a few hours of access than Boingo does for a month.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
