McDonalds Adds Wayport Hotspots To Menu

Hotspot vendor Wayport is the winner in the contest to provide hotspots to McDonalds restaurants in the U.S., the companies said in a statement Tuesday.

The decision came after the fast food chain ran a pilot of WayPort hotspots in some of its restaurants in the San Francisco, Portland, Boise, Idaho and Raleigh, North Carolina areas. Other hotspot vendors, most notably Cometa, were piloting hotspots in McDonalds restaurants in locations such as New York, Chicago and Seattle.

McDonalds said in a statement that "hundreds" of pilot hotspots put into service by other vendors would be transitioned to Wayport in coming months. It did not announce specifically how many restaurants would eventually have hotspot access, but did say it would have announcements about widespread deployments in the near future. It also said it would soon announce roaming agreements that would enable customers of other hotspots vendors to use the McDonalds hotspots.

The company previously announced that it will make free content from sources such as USA Today and The New York Times available to its Wi-Fi customers.

Participating restaurants will display a stylized logo that looks like a cross between the well-known McDonalds "M" logo and the ampersand. Walk-up customers can pay $2.95 for a two-hour session with additional options available from Wayport that include $29.95 a month for unlimited access.