Kinko's Hotspot Deployment Nearly Complete

The deployment of wireless hotspots in FedEx Kinko's 1100 U.S. locations is complete, the company said Monday.

The hotspots were deployed by T-Mobile, which also has been installing hotspots in a variety of other retail venues such as Starbucks coffee shops and Borders book stores. The two companies said in a statement that the Kinko's deployment took only about six months.

The hotspots are part of FedEx Kinko's strategy of turning their stores into an substitute offices for mobile workers. That strategy faces competition from FedEx's archrival UPS, which is working with SBC Communications to install hotspots in 1500 The UPS Store and Mailboxes Etc. locations by the end of 2004 with deployments in the company's remaining 1800 locations continuing in 2005.

Both SBC and T-Mobile offer a variety of service plans starting at $19.95 per month for unlimited access to the hotspots.