PicoPoint BV, a maker of public-access wireless backend systems based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, is making a push into the United States and elsewhere through partnerships with the similarly outfitted Airpath Wireless of Toledo, OH, and hotspot hardware maker Nomadix of Westlake Village, CA.
Airpath and PicoPoint will provide full roaming capability between their two networks for users. Airpath powers over 180 hotspots in the US, some third party and others branded by Airpath, mostly in airports.
PicoPoint takes care of billing for over 100 locations in Europe and Africa with its flagship backoffice product, GateKeeper. The company is a founding member of Global Broadband Internet Access (GBIA), a global network of independent wireless Internet service providers (WISPs) that offer public access. Other founders include WISPs from Netherlands, Germany, and South Africa.
“No one company is going to own every venue location,” says Tim Barrett of Airpath Wireless. “These models aren’t perfect but the world needs to see true collaboration and ubiquity.”
Meanwhile hardware maker Nomadix, the company behind the gateway hardware powering hotspots for multiple networks, is also partnering with PicoPoint in a technology arrangement, to make sure their hardare works seamlessly with PicoPoints back end accounting, authorization, authentication, roaming and monitoring services.
John DiGiovanni, director of marketing at Nomadix, calls PicoPoint “the service provider’s provider,” and says that the deal with PicoPoint builds on each company’s expertise. He says “We’re talking about is increased time to market and better experience for end user.” Of course, this is all invisible to the end user. Users of older Nomadix equipment can update their software to take advantage of the PicoPoint provided back end if they desire.
PicoPoint hopes the deals will expand their installed footprint around the globe.
