SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Boingo Wireless and Wificom Technologies (Helsinki) today announced an agreement that allows Wificom's SAB Server wireless Internet service provider (WISP) customers to easily sign up for the Boingo Roaming System, opening the WISP's network to potentially millions of Wi-Fi users without any technical integration efforts.
The patchwork nature of Wi-Fi deployments is a barrier to mass adoption by business travelers. Improving the ability of WISPs to add their networks to global roaming systems is an important step toward further fueling the convenience, productivity benefits and market acceptance of these services.
Boingo and Wificom have integrated their individual authentication servers, which enables roaming by securely passing client and billing information between the systems. The integrated service is already in use with a Wificom WISP customer in Brazil that has more than 167 hot spot locations operating in airports, cafes and hotels across the country.
Under the agreement, Wificom has made Boingo compatibility a standard feature of the SAB Server and the two companies will work together to market the capabilities to WISPs around the world.
"Roaming is very important to the Wi-Fi industry because it is the key to user satisfaction and the growth of the industry. This agreement reduces the integration challenges wireless ISPs face when opening their networks," said Dave Hagan, Boingo president and COO. "Wificom is an innovator in this field and a great addition to the Boingo ecosystem of industry partners."
"Wificom has had success with the SAB Server because we help WISPs build both their networks and their businesses and the addition of this Boingo integration capability adds a lot of value to the service creation and billing capabilities that are at the heart of our solution," said Mikko Riepula, CEO of Wificom. "From the beginning we have built in various forms of roaming, and in addition to inter-operator roaming, joining with an aggregator like Boingo makes sense to many infrastructure builders. We're looking forward to even greater success in the future by working together with Boingo."
Wificom Oy
Boingo Wireless Inc.