Boingo Activates Hotspot Roaming Agreement With SBC

Wi-Fi hotspot service provider Boingo Wireless said Wednesday its roaming agreement with SBC has gone live, giving Boingo customers access to 3400 SBC FreedomLink hotspots.

The vendor claims that the additions now give Boingo subscribers access to 18,000 hotspots. The newly-added SBC hotspots include access installed in Barnes and Noble bookstores, Caribou Coffee shops and The UPS Store locations.

However, not all hotspots accessible to FreedomLink customers are available to Boingo subscribers. Overall, SBC has about 8,000 FreedomLink locations in the U.S., but that includes access via roaming agreements with other vendors. For instance, FreedomLink customers can get hotspot access at some McDonald's restaurant sites that were deployed by another vendor, Wayport. However, that agreement is not part of the Boingo/SBC roaming agreement.