Boingo Wireless® and Tropos Networks™ today announced a partnership that will enable operators of Tropos-powered metro-scale Wi-Fi networks to allow Boingo® Roaming System users to access their networks. Network announced a partnership that will enable operators of Tropos-powered metro-scale Wi-Fi networks to allow Boingo Roaming System users to access their networks.
The two companies have successfully completed joint interoperability testing of their equipment and software, demonstrating that Tropos-powered metro networks can be easily integrated into the Boingo Roaming System. The testing showed that municipal network operators can install Tropos equipment knowing it is Boingo ready” and can join the Boingo network and offer Boingo roaming services on their network.
Tropos makes it fast, simple and easy to deploy metro-scale Wi-Fi networks,” said Ron Sege, president and CEO. By partnering with Boingo as the industry’s leading aggregator, we are taking a gigantic leap toward making seamless Wi-Fi ubiquity possible worldwide “ a huge opportunity and benefit for our service provider customers and mobile users.”
The large coverage area and indoor/outdoor nature of metro Wi-Fi services broadens the appeal of wireless Internet access for both today’s laptop devices and tomorrow’s Wi-Fi-based phones and other consumer electronics,” said Dave Hagan, Boingo president and CEO. Working with industry leader Tropos ensures that as metro wide Wi-Fi networks are deployed, Boingo and Boingo partner customers can access these networks as well as hot spot locations around the world.”
The announcement focuses on Tropos’ MetroZone Pilot Pack, a turnkey Wi-Fi solution for localized areas of up to one-half square mile. The MetroZone Pilot Pack contains one Pronto Hotzone Gateway with a Pronto OSS software license for up to 100 concurrent users and five Tropos 5110 outdoor Wi-Fi cells, and includes one year of technical support. If the network is a paid-access network, subscribers of the Boingo service and subscribers to services offered by Boingo Platform Services partners (currently MCI, EarthLink, Fiberlink, Infonet and Telecom Italia) can use it as part of their regular monthly service fee, while non-Boingo users can pay a daily connect fee to go online.
Operators of free hot zone networks can join the Boingo network and get exposure for their network in the Boingo software and in Internet Wi-Fi directories sponsored by Boingo. Joining the roaming system also encourages higher usage by business and corporate users because they have customized their Boingo software with features needed to securely access their corporate networks.
Paid-access hot zone operators are able to tap into the vast Boingo software user base and to generate revenue every time a Boingo user connects on their network. When a hot zone operator joins the Boingo Roaming System it will earn a connect fee for every user connect and also a bounty for every new Boingo user. All related marketing, billing, toll-free technical support and other back-office services are handled by Boingo or its Platform Services partners.
Hot zone operators can also qualify for Boingo marketing support, which provides window stickers, posters, table tents and other promotional materials that can be used to promote the hot zone. There is no cost for a metro network operator to join the Boingo Roaming System.
The Tropos Metro-Scale Wi-Fi System
Municipal Wi-Fi service providers and operators use Tropos 5110 Wi-Fi cells, an outdoor-optimized and ruggedized wireless mesh system based on the 802.11 standard. The Tropos 5110 quickly and economically uses the intelligent Tropos Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol (PWRP) to provide pervasive coverage over metro areas. The Tropos PWRP routes traffic wirelessly, eliminating up to 95% of the wired backhaul associated with traditional access point solutions. Tropos Wi-Fi cells form a wireless mesh, dynamically routing traffic along the highest throughput path to a wired gateway. This intelligent routing negates effects of radio frequency (RF) interference, wired backhaul failure and node failure. PWRP also scales to thousands of nodes with the lowest routing overhead in the industry. Network support costs are minimized via the central management capabilities of the Tropos Control Element Manager, a configuration, monitoring and maintenance tool.
Tropos Wi-Fi mesh networking systems are used for a variety of metro-scale public Internet access and mission critical applications nationwide including public safety; database access; residential, business and mobile user internet access; video surveillance and automated meter reading, to name a few.
The Boingo Service
The Boingo Roaming System integrates the networks of 85 hot spot operators worldwide into a single roaming system with more than 12,000 locations that are easily and securely accessible by end users. With the company’s award-winning Boingo software, users can detect available networks and easily manage their access to that network. Through its Platform Services offering, Boingo provides service providers with a turnkey Wi-Fi service, including the network, award-winning client access software, and a complete suite of back-office billing, roaming, mediation and clearinghouse services.