BOINGO ADDS PT WI-FI LOCATIONS TO NETWORK;
850 MORE HOTSPOTS NOW AVAILABLE IN PORTUGAL
Roaming agreement with division of Portugal Telecom gives Boingo nationwide coverage with hotspots at Lisbon Portela Airport, and in convention centers, hotels and restaurants
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - - Jan 31, 2006 -
Boingo Wireless, the world’s leading wholesale Wi-Fi network aggregator, today announced a roaming agreement with PT Wi-Fi, a division of Portugal Telecom, that adds more than 850 popular Portuguese wireless locations including hotels, airports and retail centers to the Boingo® Roaming System.
PT Wi-Fi’s network provides comprehensive and convenient connectivity at hotspot locations including Lisbon Portela Airport (LIS), Hotel Ibis, Le Meridien, Holiday Inn, Hotel Altis and Hotel Dom Pedro, as well as conference venues, McDonald’s Restaurants and shopping areas including Fnac stores. PT Wi-Fi was launched in 2003 by Portugal Telecom Group to deliver the country’s first wireless broadband Internet access service. The company is a member of the Wireless Broadband Alliance.
“Portugal is on the leading edge of Wi-Fi adoption countrywide and we believe there will come a time when wireless technology will be so pervasive that it will be difficult to do business in the country without a connection,” said Colby Goff, Boingo's senior vice president of network strategy. “Working with PT Wi-Fi ensures our users that they will have high-quality, universal coverage nationwide that can handle computing, voice and other applications.”
Portugal’s government is a strong proponent of Wi-Fi technology, and has supported wireless network growth and usage through government-sponsored national broadband initiatives, subsidies and loans for laptop purchases by students, and the encouragement of network-enabled business practices.
“We strongly believe that Wi-Fi is a technology that will change the lives of the people in Portugal and we want to deliver a network with the performance and convenience to maximize the benefits of the technology,” said Tiago Rodrigues, Product Manager at PT Wi-Fi. “Roaming is critical to ensuring that our network is fully utilized, and we’ve shown our dedication to opening up our network in this manner through our work with the Wireless Broadband Alliance and now through our partnership with Boingo.”
25,551 Reasons to Use Boingo
Boingo gives business travelers the best choice of Wi-Fi hotspots by combining over 25,000 locations from more than 100 leading Wi-Fi operators into one worldwide network. Boingo users can connect to any of these locations with a single Boingo account using Boingo's free Wi-Fi client software, which combines more than 450 network names into one "Boingo Wireless" network to simplify identifying and connecting to commercial Wi-Fi networks.
Boingo also partners with service providers to allow their users to access these hotspots through its Boingo Platform Services program. The program provides partners with access to this network, customized client software, and a full suite of back-office billing, roaming, mediation and clearinghouse services to allow them to offer their own Wi-Fi service quickly and cost effectively. To date, the company has announced Platform Services partnerships with BT Infonet, Earthlink, Fiberlink, Nextel Communications, MCI, Skype and Telecom Italia.
About PT Wi-Fi
PT Wi-Fi is part of the Portugal Telecom Group and offers WLAN services through its network of hotspots. PT Wi-Fi launched its WLAN service in the summer of 2003 and today has around 850 hotspots live throughout Portugal. PT Wi-Fi is today the biggest national operator for WLAN services in Portugal.
Portugal Telecom Group is the leading telecommunications company in Portugal for fixed, mobile and broadband Internet services. The PT Wi-Fi corporate website is at www.ptwifi.pt
About Boingo Wireless
Boingo Wireless, Inc. is an ultra-high-speed wireless Internet service available in thousands of locations such as hotels, airports, cafes and other public places in dozens of countries throughout the world. Both directly and through major carrier and ISP partners, Boingo provides business travelers with a wireless broadband Internet connection to improve productivity while on the road. Through its Wi-Fi software and Roaming System, Boingo makes finding and connecting to Wi-Fi networks point-and-click simple and secure. More information about Boingo is available at http://www.boingo.com.
Boingo is a registered trademark of Boingo Wireless Inc.
