Boingo Wireless to bring Wireless broadband to business travelers - Applications - Brief Article

Wireless Internet, Jan, 2002

Boingo Wireless launched and announced plans to provide ultra-high-speed wireless Internet service in major hotels, airports, coffee shops and other popular venues. Boingo customers will have access to more than 750 public Wi-Fi "hot spot" locations through the Boingo Wireless service.

The service is designed for business travelers who are frustrated with slow dial-up access when away from their home or office. Boingo utilizes Wi-Fl, also referred to as 802.lb, which has emerged as the preeminent international standard for wireless broadband Internet access. Wi-Fi provides speeds of up to 11 Mbps, almost 200 times faster than 56k dial-up service.

Boingo has developed Wi-Fi software that "sniffs" the air for available signals and makes it easy for customers to connect to Wi-Fi networks. It also includes a profile manager, so they can connect to favorite Wi-Fi signals quickly and easily.

In conjunction with the Boingo software, the Boingo Wireless service will provide instant wireless broadband access for business travelers at a growing list of over 750 hotels, airports, coffee shops, and other locations. The access these "hot spots," a Boingo customer will use the company's user-friendly software to locate a network signal and simply click "connect" to start using the Internet at broadband speeds. For added protection against hackers and snoops, Boingo will provide a one-click "Personal VPN" that completely secures the connection from the customer's PC all the way back to a Boingo data center deep in the heart of the Internet.

Some of Boingo's hot spot locations will include:

- Major U.S. Airports such as Dallas Fort Worth (DFW), Austin-Bergstrom (AUS), San Jose (SJC) and Seattle-Tacoma (SEA).

- Select locations in prominent hotel properties such as the Four Seasons, Hilton, Radisson, Sheraton, Wyndham, and more.

- Popular coffee shops, restaurants and other public locations in major US cities.

- Boingo Wireless has hot spot locations in 100% of the markets served by the 20 highest flicked airports, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit; Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, Newark; Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, St Louis, San Francisco Washington DC.

- Boingo's location database also includes community Wi-Fi networks in cities such as Jacksonville, Florida Austin and Houston, Texas; the San Francisco Bay area in California; St. Louis, Missouri; Vancouver, Canada; and London, England. (These networks will be available at no charge.)

Boingo will have three service plans that meet the needs of all business travelers - from the occasional traveler to the hardcore road warrior:

- Boing As-You-Go: no monthly fee, $7.95 per 24 hour connect per venue

- Boingo Pro: $24.95 per month for up to 10 24-hour connects; each additional connect is $4.95

- Boingo Unlimited: $74.95 pie month for unlimited access