It’s been a busy week for Santa Monica-based hotspot aggregator Boingo
Wireless. The company, which provides Wi-Fi based Internet connections at
more than 600 partner access areas in the United States, is continuing to grow
by adding partners, pushing promotion, and offering hotspot setup hardware.
Boingo — which launched in 2001and has already partnered with companies like
Wayport, Surf and Sip, and HereUare to offer Boingo service via their hotspots
— announced that it has signed on Airpath Wireless as a new Boingo partner.
AirPath of Toledo, OH, has been offering wireless Internet access in public
spots and in residential setups since 2001.
The addition of AirPath adds 36 hotspots to Boingo’s network, including 26
airports. Boingo now has over 600 Wi-Fi hotspots in the United States.
In the hopes of adding even more hotspot partners, Boingo is now offering Boingo-configured
access points for $895 to anyone who wants to offer Wi-Fi connections to the
customers on their premises. The hardware (called Hot Spot in a Box, AKA the
CN3000 Wireless
Access Controller from Colubris Networks)
comes with a complete marketing kit with instructions on how to resell Boingo
service and table tents, stickers, and CDs promoting the service.
Anyone who has a venue with a broadband connection and static IP address that
signs up as a Boingo Hot Spot Operator and buys the Colubris hardware is automatically
listed in the Boingo directory. Once customers are using the service, Boingo
will send a check to the venue owner based on aggregate customer connections
($1 for every Boingo member who connects in a 24-hour session) and $20 for each
Boingo member sign up at that location.
This coincides with Boingo’s Hot-Spot-in-a-Box specification, which Boingo
uses to set standards for the hardware needed by potential partners. Wi-Fi
product manufacturers can get a copy direct from Boingo. Agere’s
announced smart access point technology will support this spec. Boingo and
Nomadix previously announced another product to use the standard, the Nomadix
Universal Subscriber Gateway.
Promotion is big on Boingo’s slate this week, as they also announced plans
to setup shop in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Seattle-Tacoma airports, where they
resell access provided by Wayport. Both airports will have staffed booths where
Boingo will offer free 802.11b network interface cards to anyone that signs
for three months of service through Boingo Wireless. Any Wayport users at the
airport will find the login Web pages co-branded with Boingo’s logo, with links
to download the Boingo software.
Boingo service consists of a software tool that seeks out partner hotspots
and lets users log in to the Internet via these partner access areas. The program
has a "personal VPN" feature to instantly secure a connection.
Christian Gunning,
Director of Product Management at Boingo Wireless , and Colby Goff,
Director, Business Development, Boingo
Wireless will both be speaking on panels at the 80211 Planet Conference &
Expo in Philadelphia on June 12,
2002.
