inbabble.com

WiFi pioneer aggregator Boingo has announced the first “truly global flat rate plan” for high-speed wireless Internet access. The new product, Boingo Global, offers WiFi service at more than 100,000 hotspots for €29 or $39 per month, without roaming or per-minute fees. Other hotspot providers don’t have flat rate plans, have fewer hotspots (Boingo is the largest commercial network now), or charge roaming fees.

Boingo Global doesn’t include access to partner networks such as FON’s 130,000 free member-provided hotspots (Ed - incorporation of the roaming plan to include FON hotspots will happen in the coming months - clarification from Christian Gunning, Director of Marketing), though subscribers can use their Boingo accounts to log in there too. Travelers in European airports can sign up for Boingo Global at any hotspot belonging to France’s Hub télécom or Norway’s OLTD (Oslo Lufthavn Tele & Data AS), as well as on the Boingo website. Otherwise, Boingo AsYouGo costs US$7.95 per day in the US and Canada, and US$9.95 per day in other countries, plus international roaming fees. Signing up at hotspots in Germany, Italy and the UK will become possible later this year.

One of Boingo’s newer features is its GoBoingo software, a lightweight utility for Windows that identifies Boingo-accessible partner hotspots, allowing single-click logon at dozens of partner networks across the world. Boingo provides wholesale roaming WiFi service to BT Infonet, Nextel, Verizon Business, Earthlink, Fiberlink, and Skype.

Boingo expects that the new plan will be most attractive to frequent international business travelers to major world cities. “There are some existing customers who travel who we think will be interested, and we’ll market to them,” said Boingo CEO David Hagan, “but we think this serves a new segment.” Boingo had been selling unlimited North American service for US$21.95 per month. Meanwhile, a spokesman for UK WiFi network The Cloud told the International Herald-Tribune, “We will be rolling out flat-rate pricing in the next few months… WiFi across Europe for the consumer market is just too expensive now.”

Michael M.