AT&T has expanded its roaming agreement with Boingo Wireless to include more than 80 venues, including major airports, military bases and other places that have Boingo’s Passpoint-certified networks.
The announcement provides a boost to Boingo, which routinely has been asked about the status of U.S. wireless operators using its networks, with executives usually reluctant to name names. But AT&T acknowledged it’s all part of its network management strategy.
“Boingo’s Passpoint footprint allows us to connect millions in more locations than ever, making it easier for travelers and troops to talk, text and stream over Wi-Fi,” said JR Wilson, vice president of tower strategy and roaming, AT&T, in a press release. “The move is part of AT&T’s strategic network management initiatives that help accommodate rising mobile data traffic.”
AT&T said data traffic on its mobile network has grown more than 470,000% since 2007, with video making up half of its mobile data traffic. By 2022, the company estimates video could make up more than 75% of AT&T’s mobile traffic driven by growth in 4K video, autonomous cars, drones, VR/AR and mobile gaming.
Wi-Fi roaming on Boingo’s Passpoint-certified networks is available to AT&T subscribers at no additional charge. Passpoint is a standardized hotspot technology that automates secure roaming between AT&T cellular and Boingo Wi-Fi networks for better customer experiences, offering fast speeds as well as public Wi-Fi encryption with two-way authentication.
“AT&T customers can now enjoy automatic Wi-Fi connectivity at nearly all of our venues where Boingo Passpoint is available,” said David Hagan, chairman and CEO at Boingo, in the release. “Roaming onto secure Wi-Fi with interoperable technologies like Passpoint improves in building capacity at a venue, while removing friction for end users.”
Passpoint was developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance with support from the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA). AT&T and Boingo both serve on the WBA board of directors, helping lead ongoing research, trials and deployments for Passpoint and other wireless technologies to drive coexistence between licensed and unlicensed networks.
AT&T, which found itself in an unfortunate predicament when the first iPhone took off and its network was overburdened with traffic, has been at the forefront of offloading mobile data traffic onto Wi-Fi. It purchased Wi-Fi hotspot provider Wayport back in 2008, which expanded its Wi-Fi footprint by adding thousands of hotspots.
Source: https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/at-t-expands-wi-fi-roaming-deal-boingo