Global hotspots providers – iPass, Boingo, and WeFi
As the world moves away into portability and wireless solutions, the benefits and advantages that fixed-line solutions are also becoming evident. That’s why we’ve decided to do a little piece about Wifi hotspot services like iPass, Boingo and Wefi – 3 companies that offer users the ability to connect to WiFi hotspots around the world.
iPass – The iPass mobile network is the world’s largest WiFi network with over 779,000 hotspots in over 120 countries and territories around the world. These hotspots are located in areas like airports, hotel, restaurants, cafe etc. iPass offers users the iPassConnect multi-platform client which manages the user’s connectivity on various platforms like Windows, Mac, Android, iOS etc. – enabling him to switch automatically between various connections (3G, WiFi, LAN etc.). The biggest disadvantage of the iPass service is that it only services businesses, so if you are a private consumer, you will not be able to user their services directly.
Update: Karen From iPass, has been kind enough to send us a link to iPass’s private consumer offer and correct our error. Please see Karen’s comment below. Thanks for letting us know, Karen!
Boingo – In terms of market share and net worth, Boingo is the largest player in the WiFI hotspots game. Currently Boingo has more than 500,000 hotspots around the world. Like iPass, Boingo also has a multi-platform client that enables the user to use the Boingo service conveniently and without hassle. Unlike iPass, Boingo does offer it’s services to the private consumer. Boingo has a wide range of prices and offerings – from plans for mobile devices, regional plans and pay-as-you-go plans. Prices range from $7.95 per month for mobile plan and up to $59 per month for a global plan for your laptop that allows from 2000 minutes of use.
WeFi – As the previous two services were paid and belonged to giant companies, WeFi is different. First off, WeFi is free, you download it to your smartphone and there are no subscription costs of any kind. Second, WeFi claims to support over 130,000,000 hotspots (that’s not a typo, by the way) – more than 13o times than iPass. Third, WeFi doesn’t actually own these or has contracts with these locations like the other 2 companies before – it merely “documents” their presence and records them in it’s database. More than anything WeFi is like a giant database of available public and private hotspots – that’s why it’s free, handy and popular. But that’s also why it’s the least reliable of all 3. The biggest downside of WeFi? It doesn’t support iOS – only Android, Symbian and PC. Though we do not recommend using WeFi on it’s own – it is a great back up tool for when you travel overseas and stuck without internet.
Whenever you travel overseas, staying connected has become a must in recent years- whether it’s because of work, family, friends or just because you want to show off on Facebook that you’re abroad. As always, we at KeepGo offer you the ability to stay connected with our 3G data SIM solution in more than 160 countries. But if you’ve run out of your allocated daily data plan, we’re now offering you a unique data solution that provides you with high-speed WiFi coverage in over 700,000 hotspots around the world – giving you the ability to seamlessly connect to a WiFi hotspot through an app running in the background.
