Hotspot Vendors Ink Wi-Fi Roaming Agreements

SBC, Boingo Wireless and Airpath wireless said Thursday that they have signed new roaming agreements that expand the breadth of those vendors' Wi-Fi hotspot networks.

SBC said its agreement with Airpath agreement makes 3300 more hotspots available to SBC FreedomLink subscribers. The agreement with Boingo makes 3400 SBC hotspots available to customers of Boingo's partners. Boingo offers a hotspot platform and aggregates hotspots rather than offering its own.

In an increasingly complex system, SBC already has similar arrangements with hotspot aggregators iPass, GoRemote and Syniverse and hotspot vendors such as WayPort, which is wiring McDonald's restaurants.

Perhaps because of the complexity of all the roaming agreements, SBC clarified that it now is charging $19.95 for accessing its own hotspots and $20 a month additionally for unlimited access to the hotspots of its roaming partners.