SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Boingo Wireless and ICOA Inc., today announced an expansion of their previously announced roaming relationship to include all six of the regional airports that are a part of the Wi-Fi network of ICOA’s subsidiary Airport Network Solutions (ANS).
Users of the Boingo Roaming System can now go online at Spokane, WA, International Airport; the Greater Baton Rouge, LA, Airport; Sacramento International Airport; Manchester, NH, Airport; Savannah/Hilton Head, GA, International Airport and Fresno-Yosemite, CA, International Airport. The companies originally announced a roaming agreement that included only the airports in Sacramento, Savannah and Baton Rouge.
The announcement brings to 75 the number of airports worldwide that are a part of the Boingo Roaming System.
“For our business traveler customers, using Wi-Fi at an airport is a lifesaver because it is an especially convenient location for completing last- minute work or staying in touch with customers or colleagues,” said Dave Hagan, Boingo president and COO. “We are glad to partner with ICOA to help spread secure Wi-Fi access to as many airports — large and small — as possible. ICOA is clearly a leader in the airport Wi-Fi marketplace and we look forward to growing with them into additional airport venues.”
ICOA’s ANS subsidiary is a neutral-host provider that deploys facility- wide Wi-Fi networks at regional “origination and destination” airports, those with between 1 million and 10 million passengers. The company’s turnkey service manages all authentication, customer support, billing, reconciliation and in-building roaming. This wireless infrastructure can be branded by the airport and also opened up to Wi-Fi aggregators and wireless ISPs as part of their own branded services.
“As a neutral host provider, it is essential that we add quality roaming partners to increase the traffic and value of our networks,” said Rick Schiffmann, executive vice president of ICOA. “As the leading network aggregator, Boingo gives our locations a tremendous boost in visibility and accessibility because they can now be used by millions of Boingo software users.”
With this agreement, the Boingo Roaming System expands to include more than 80 network operators and more than 9,000 hot spots under contract worldwide. Boingo packages this roaming system, along with its end-user Wi-Fi software and a complete suite of back-office billing, roaming, mediation and clearinghouse services into its Boingo Platform Services offering for major carriers and ISPs.
Platform Service is a turnkey service that can be branded and launched by service providers as a low-cost, rapid time-to-market alternative to building their own networks. Current announced Platform Services customers include MCI, Infonet Services, EarthLink, Fiberlink, and Telecom Italia.