Boingo Offers Private-Label Wi-Fi

Service providers that want to offer Wi-Fi services but don’t want to invest the time and resources to build hotspots themselves now have the option of reselling such services from Boingo Wireless. The Wi-Fi pioneer’s new Boingo Platform Services enables cellular carriers, wireline telcos and ISPs worldwide to sell Wi-Fi services under their own labels.

Boingo Platform Services supports Wi-Fi and will shortly incorporate next-generation wireless wide area networking services such as 2.5G and 3G, allowing end user customers to move between Wi-Fi and wireless WAN networks with one account and one carrier-branded user interface. Initially that means the ability to access next-gen cellular networks and Wi-Fi with the same client software, but down the road Boingo Wireless President Dave Hagan says he expects service providers will have the ability to do handoffs between the Wi-Fi and public wireless networks.

Boingo Wireless charges companies reselling its service a monthly per subscriber client software licensing fee and a per connection network fee, says Hagan.

ISP EarthLink and Fiberlink, a provider of remote access and security solutions, are the first service provider customers of Boingo Platform Services offering.

Boingo, which claims to be the largest Wi-Fi network aggregator, has more than 1,200 locations in 11 countries.

The company has spent two years and $10 million developing client software, back office systems and roaming technology. The client software includes a hot spot sniffer, built-in searchable location directory, profile manager for connecting to secure Wi-Fi networks at home and at the office, built-in VPN, and one-click access at more 1,200 hot spots.

Later this year, Boingo expects to add support for 2.5G technologies, including GPRS, CDMA 1XRTT and iDEN, to its sniffer software, allowing service providers to integrate their existing wireless data services with Wi-Fi access through a single user interface. This enhanced version of the Boingo Software will include network preference and auto-connection logic that allows users to designate automatic primary and back-up networks.

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