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Boingo bounces into Britain

Richard Shim CNET News.com

Published: 14 Oct 2003 10:25 BST

Wi-Fi access provider Boingo Wireless is expanding its reach into Europe, cutting a deal with UK network operator The Cloud.

The partnership, announced on Monday, adds 2,500 more "hot spots" to Boingo's roaming network in the United Kingdom. Hot spots are public places that give people wireless access.

The move should make Boingo more attractive to carriers. The company is now turning its attention to carriers after building a large enough network to attract their interest, according to John Yunker, an analyst with research firm Pyramid Research.

"Boingo is going after carriers now, so it's important for them to grow the size of their network," Yunker said.

The company works with hot-spot operators to combine their networks and allow Boingo subscribers to access those combined networks, increasing the network traffic while giving subscribers a broader number of locations to wirelessly access the Internet.

Boingo is expected to announce a deal with a major European carrier on Tuesday.

"The European hot-spot market has developed to the point where carriers are becoming interested in offering their own services, and we want to help them do that," Boingo spokesman David Rodewald said.

Boingo also has hot spots in Japan, Australia, Latin America, India and Canada.

The company recently raised an additional $10m (£6m) in funding, with which it plans to grow its global network and woo more carriers, Internet service providers and managed service providers.