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Thursday, May 24, 2007

Boingo and FON

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BOINGO TO ROAM ONTO FON’S WI-FI NETWORK MORE THAN DOUBLING ITS HOT SPOT NETWORK WORLDWIDE

Boingo® Roaming System Will be World’s Largest Hot Spot Network with Access to 130,000 FON Locations

MADRID/SANTA MÓNICA, Spain/CA/EE.UU.—May 24, 2007— Boingo Wireless Inc., the world’s leading wholesale network aggregator and operator of neutral-host Wi-Fi networks, today announced it has signed a roaming agreement with FON, a Madrid-based company, that, when integrated, will provide access to an additional 130,000 hot spot locations – more than doubling the company’s network size.

The 130,000 Wi-Fi locations come 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. For Boingo users, these new locations provide a rich network of Wi-Fi locations in areas that complement Boingo’s existing commercial locations.

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 VoIP calls, use messaging services or surf the Internet from their handset.

“Boingo users have counted on the Boingo Roaming System for great coverage at major business travel locations, and now have the same great coverage outside of those locations with the addition of the FON community locations,” said Luis Serrano, Boingo vice president of network strategy.

“FON is continuing to attract important partners as it executes its business plan and builds a unique collection of Wi-Fi locations around the globe,” said Joanna Rees, CEO of FON U.S. “Now, the benefits of the FON network are available to a new audience – business travelers – who get ubiquitous coverage along with Boingo’s ease of use benefits.”

FON hot spots are provided by community members (called Foneros) who share their unused bandwidth via a FON router in exchange for free Wi-Fi access when roaming through any other FON access point. FON recently signed a partnership with Time Warner Cable, to give their cable modem service subscribers the opportunity to be members of the FON community and enjoy free unlimited Wi-Fi access at any of FON's partner ISP Wi-Fi hotspots.
Boingo – The Best Network For Business Travelers
Boingo gives business travelers the best choice of Wi-Fi hot spots by combining tens of thousands of locations from more than 150 leading Wi-Fi operators into one worldwide network. Boingo users can connect to any of these locations with a single Boingo account using Boingo’s free Wi-Fi client software, which combines more than 660 network names into one “Boingo Wireless®” network and stores the user name and password to simplify identifying and connecting to commercial Wi-Fi networks.

The program provides partners with access to this network, customized client software, and a full suite of back-office billing, roaming, mediation and clearinghouse services to allow them to offer their own Wi-Fi service quickly and cost effectively. To date, the company has announced Platform Services partnerships with BT Infonet, EarthLink, Fiberlink, Nextel Communications, Verizon Business and Skype.

About FON
FON is building the world's largest WiFi community. Founded in 2006 in Madrid, Spain, FON's mission is to stimulate growth of WiFi Internet access through its WiFi sharing Community of "Foneros". FON’s La Fonera WiFi routers have been specifically designed to enable Foneros to share their home access points with the FON Community in a completely safe and secure manner. In return for sharing, Foneros gain free WiFi access everywhere in the world they find another Fonero. FON's investors include Google, Skype, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital. For more information, visit FON at http://www.fon.com.

About Boingo Wireless
Boingo Wireless, Inc. provides global Wi-Fi Internet access through the Boingo® Roaming System, which comprises tens of thousands hot spots in airports, hotels, cafes and other public places, including metropolitan hot zones. Business travelers can use a single Boingo account to log in at Wi-Fi networks around the world using one username and password. Boingo Roaming System services can also be private labeled by telcos, wireless operators, Internet service providers (ISP) and managed service providers (MSP) as part of their own branded services for laptops, handsets and mobile devices. Through its Concourse Communications Group LLC subsidiary, Boingo operates neutral host wireless access systems that provide wireless voice and data services supporting public and commercial interests. More information about Boingo and Concourse is available at http://www.boingo.com and http://www.concoursecommunications.com.

Posted by Steve Ross on Business
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Will we linusses be able to connect to the boingo websites for free in exchange of this program?

# 1 | Sent by: steven – Thursday, May 24, 2007 (22:20)

Joanna Rees, CEO of FON U.S. “Now, the benefits of the FON network are available to a new audience – business travelers – who get ubiquitous coverage along with Boingo’s ease of use benefits.”

As a fonero, what do I get?

# 2 | Sent by: Alan Dorkin – Friday, May 25, 2007 (09:32)

Excellent news for Fon and Boingo. I personally have good experience when travelling with Boingo WiFi access points in the US.

What is not clear to me: Does the deal also imply that Fon members can access the Boingo network under the same conditions as if they would roam on another Fon access point?

# 3 | Sent by: Axel – Friday, May 25, 2007 (10:06)

So how does this benefit Fonero's ? We will have boingo-bodies connecting to our WiFi for free but will we be able to connect to the Boingo network for free ?

Up to now I let foneros connect to me for free and I can connect to them for free - but now it looks like there's a whole bunch of people coming in to the network without having to offer anything in return ..

# 4 | Sent by: Des – Friday, May 25, 2007 (10:41)

The deal with Boingo creates a very bad history for FON, as it does not guarantee free WiFi access for FON users (Foneros) in equal terms to Boingo users.

I have now switched off my FON access point and will reconnect to FON until the terms of the agreement change.

I was also unaware of the legal issues with sharing a home broadband connection, so this is something I have to look into prior to reconnecting my router.

These are not good news...

# 5 | Sent by: Nikolaos – Friday, May 25, 2007 (19:51)

I think that we must be getting free access now to the whole Boingo Wi-Fi network, that is 60 thousand more hostspots for us to roam on.

Though it seems they just forgot to mention that in the press release..?

# 6 | Sent by: Charbax – Friday, May 25, 2007 (22:21)

Axel – Friday, May 25, 2007 (10:06): Without having to offer anything in return….

That’s my problem as well and I don’t like the idée at all, when I don’t can connect on the Boingo network. It just sounds like a open wrt flash!

And I know it is to make FON bigger but I should work also at our FON side.

# 7 | Sent by: Smile – Friday, May 25, 2007 (22:38)

Sent by: Des – Friday, May 25, 2007 (10:41): Without having to offer anything in return….

That’s my problem as well and I don’t like the idée at all, when I don’t can connect on the Boingo network. It just sounds like a open wrt flash!

And I know it is to make FON bigger but I should work also at our FON side.

# 8 | Sent by: Smile – Friday, May 25, 2007 (22:40)

Boingo will pay FON every time a Boingo customer uses a FON spot. As usual, Bills will get 50%.

Part of the rational for this partnership is that by increasing demand for/exposure to FON Spots we will raise the visibility of the FON community movement and thereby encourage more to join. (The demand vs. supply approach!)

Boingo users are wifi users, and hence many have broadband at home and are excellent candidates to become Foneros. Giving them a taste of FON through their Boingo pass is a great way to demonstrate the value of WiFi anytime, anywhere - not just hotels & airports - and get them to become part of the community. (We do something similar when we give free day passes out.)

Lastly, the technical implementation of this whole project has not been undertaken yet, and is a few months off.

# 9 | Sent by: Steve Ross – Friday, May 25, 2007 (23:31)


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