SBC adds 3,300 Airpath and Boingo, Airpath adds 3,400 FreedomLink hotspots(corrected story): SBC will let its FreedomLink users roam onto 3,300 Airpath hotspots, while simultaneously reselling access to SBC-operated hotspots back to Airpath and also to Boingo. This makes SBC FreedomLink one of the largest hotspot aggregators in the world, while increasing Boingo's raw count (including both active and contracted locations) to over 16,000. (Read also my colleague Eric Griffith's analysis at Wi-Fi Planet--he has much more detail on the Airpath part of the deal.)
This press release explains SBC's somewhat opaque pricing. SBC offers FreedomLink for $19.95 per month for FreedomLink's own locations. But they add an extra $20.00 per month to have access to the roaming locations run by other networks. That was never clearly explained before. FreedomLink now or will soon include thousands of roaming locations, including Wayport hotels, Concourse Communications airports, and Telmex hotspots.
FreedomLink's home network includes The UPS Store and Mailboxes Etc., Caribou Coffee, and Barnes & Noble. But it also confusingly includes the McDonald's restaurant that Wayport is unwiring and reselling.
So Wayport-managed FreedomLink locations: FreedomLink home network.
Wayport-operated McDonald's locations: FreedomLInk home network.
Wayport-operated hotels and airports: FreedomLink roaming network.
Boingo will have access just to the FreedomLink locations that SBC has Wayport managing for them, while FreedomLink subscribers will have access to the entire home network including McDonald's under the regular rate. Boingo will have to cut a separate deal with Wayport to resell Wi-Fi World locations.
SBC DSL subscribers pay nothing for Wi-Fi access on the home network until May 31; originally, that deal went through April. Starting June 1, the rate is $1.99 for FreedomLink network locations. Another deal will be announced later, the press release promises, to extend a special rate for roaming locations.
(The initial version of this story reported from a San Antonio business publication that had the details wrong.)