Boingo Wireless wrote to note that their new VoIP pricing at hotspots includes all locations: On Dec. 7, Belkin announced their Skype phone that would work with a Boingo hotspot service plan. At the time, I assumed that the $8/month fee for unlimited VoIP usage would be subject to the same restrictions that applied to Boingo's pure data plan: US and Canadian locations are included in their $22/month charge for "unlimited" access, while negotiated metered rates apply to many locations outside North America.
Not so, Boingo says. The VoIP plan is really Boingo Mobile, a new service aimed at the category of mobile devices that sport Wi-Fi. This will be a large category in 2007, with potentially tens of millions of units across games, cameras, phones, and handhelds sold worldwide. And tens of millions might be too low a number. Despite predictions that cell data networks will improve in speed and coverage, there are no cameras or gaming systems that use cell networks for connectivity, and no plans that I'm aware of because of the heavy data demand that real cameras (not phonecams) and interactive games would place on the limited bandwidth of cell networks.
Boingo said that their $8 per month mobile service buys you unlimited access from supported devices at all their locations--no metered charges will apply. Right now, the focus is on phones, but that will change. As Devicescape noted in their beta launch of their method of making it easier to log into Wi-Fi networks from mobile devices, current account systems require a unique paid account for each unique use--you can't use your T-Mobile account on two laptops at once, but you also can't use it on a phone, camera, and laptop. New pricing models have to evolve to allow unique devices you own to have their own subscriptions under a super-account you manage.
Boingo's network now stands at about 35,000 hotspots worldwide with about 19,000 more ready for near-term integration, and 6,000 others in various stages. However, not all 35,000 integrated locations work with VoIP yet, due to software and authentication updates that are in progress.