Boingo Wireless, the world’s leading Wi-Fi network aggregator, today announced a roaming partnership with SFR, a leading French mobile phone operator, adding over 300 high-quality hot spots in France to the Boingo Roaming System.
The SFR network is designed for business travelers and includes the Toulouse and Bale-Mulhouse airports, and convention centers across the country, including the Palais des Festivals de Cannes, home of the Cannes Film Festival. SFR has hot spots in restaurants and more than 270 hotels across the country, including partnerships with Best Western Hotels and Exclusive Hotels. The network also includes hotspots in rest stops along major freeways, and a metro Wi-Fi network encompassing La Defense, Paris’ premier business district.
The addition of the SFR network brings the number of French hot spots in the Boingo Roaming System to more than 800, including 12 airports. The agreement is Boingo’s first with a European wireless operator.
“SFR’s pioneering combination of 3G and Wi-Fi services reflects a vision of the complementary nature of each service that matches Boingo’s view perfectly,” said Luis Serrano, Boingo director of network strategy for Europe.
SFR began building its Wi-Fi network in 2003 with the strategy to provide high-speed data services to business travelers accessing the network with a computer or PDA. The strategy is paired with the company’s aggressive roll out of 3G services to its broad base of GSM phone subscribers. SFR recently announced it is has signed up more than 1 million 3G customers.
“SFR’s strategy is to provide our customers with ubiquitous data coverage, and we have long recognized that Wi-Fi, GPRS, and 3G are all necessary to reach that goal. Boingo is helping us to lead the way in the next phase of our strategy, which is putting a new emphasis on opening our network to more international users,” said Frederic Bruneteau, SFR’s director of Wi-Fi marketing.
30,581 Reasons to Use Boingo
Boingo gives business travelers the best choice of Wi-Fi hot spots by combining over 30,000 locations from more than 130 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 hot spots 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 Boingo Wireless
Boingo Wireless, Inc. is an ultra-high-speed wireless Internet service available in tens of thousands of locations such as hotels, airports, cafes, and other public places in dozens of countries throughout the world. The Boingo Roaming System comprises hundreds of Wi-Fi network operators, which are accessible through Boingo’s connection software for laptops, PDAs, dual-mode phones, and other embedded devices. The software — available in SDK and white label GUI versions — makes finding and connecting to Wi-Fi networks point-and-click simple, improving productivity for people on the go by enabling their device of choice for Wi-Fi roaming authentication. With the largest aggregated Wi-Fi network in the world, coupled with best-in-class software solutions for both laptops and portable devices, Boingo helps carriers and ISPs keep their customers connected with a high-quality broadband wireless connection. More information about Boingo is available at http://www.boingo.com.
Boingo is a registered trademark of Boingo Wireless, Inc.
