UPDATED 13:00 EDT / AUGUST 08 2012

Boingo Set to Expand Free Wi-Fi Access with Acquisition of Cloud Nine Media

While there seems to be Wi-Fi hot spots everywhere these days, trying to find some place where you can get connected for free is an altogether different story. However, if the latest acquisition by Boingo Wireless tells us anything, it’s that that paying for Wi-Fi may one day become a thing of the past.

Sounds pretty hopeful right? Perhaps, but by all accounts Boingo hasn’t purchased Cloud Nine Media, a marketing firm that offers ad-supported access to Wi-Fi hot spots, simply to start charging their customers money. Instead, the company claims that sponsored Wi-Fi access is an area of growth they’re very interested in, and by snapping up Cloud Nine they’re getting all the technology and know-how they need to exploit it to the max.

Cloud Nine’s burgeoning network currently consists of just over 6,000 locations in the US and Canada, including 4,500 hotels, 475 restaurants and eight major airports, and is totally paid for by advertisers.

Connecting with Cloud Nine isn’t totally free however – before any browsing gets done, users are forced to sit through a 30-second ad from whoever is funding the access (like this one for Google Maps) before they can access the sites they want. This might annoy some people, but if you’re anything like as stingy as I am when it comes to paying for Wi-Fi access, the trade off is more than agreeable.

Boingo itself is a premium Wi-Fi hotspot provider. Their more than 500,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in the US dwarfs the amount offered by Cloud Nine, but one has to wonder whether they might decide to switch some of these premium services to the ad sponsored model. The reason is that the acquisition of Cloud Nine comes at the same time as Boingo releases its Q2 results. Previously, the company reported disappointing Q1 revenues of just $24.19m, which was somewhat lower than their initial targets. Could it be that Boingo see free Wi-Fi access as the way forward?

For one thing, Boingo has already ‘tested the waters’ earlier this summer, teaming up with Google to provide free Wi-Fi access at over 200 New York hotspots. Fingers crossed, they might just decide it’s more profitable to let everyone use their networks for free.


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