iPass equipped with 106k Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide
Enterprise hotspot aggregator iPass announced partnership deal with Telmex, which lets it integrate more than 1,300 Telmex Wi-Fi hotspots into the iPass Global Broadband roaming Network. With the Telmex deal, iPass now has 106,638 Wi-Fi locations available in 82 countries.
iPass’ core segment is the global enterprise customers. 447 of the Forbes Global 2000 use its roaming services. With such a vast roaming network, an obvious temptation would be to enter VoIP. So far iPass has stayed clear of VoIP services simply because there is no such demand from its customers. With a vast roaming network, perhaps GSMA IPX type services or simple VoIP peering would make sense. However iPass is content with just data roaming services right now. GRIC had a similar business model as iPass several years back. It explored VoIP briefly and then quit the market soon afterwards.
When roaming, customers don’t have to worry about charges. Companies are billed centrally and most of them use iPass services at flat rates. However, there are some companies that have elected usage pricing.
Today iPass has 119 Wi-Fi operator partnerships world wide.
