Should you pass on iPass?

Over the past month, I've been testing a service from iPass that aggregates Wi-Fi hot spot services from a number of providers, offering users Internet connectivity from several locations without having to shell out for expensive day passes or subscribe to multiple services. In addition, the iPassConnect Mobility service offers the addition of a wide-area CDMA EV-DO card for network access in places where Wi-Fi hot spots are not available.

If you're a mobile worker in an enterprise (or in IT supporting such a worker), this may sound familiar. The iPass service has been available for enterprises for a few years — what's new is that the iPassConnect Mobility service is additionally being aimed at consumers and small-to-midsize businesses. Some of the benefits of the enterprise offering, such as multiple service offerings under the iPass umbrella, are available for a price that smaller businesses can afford.

The service subscription provides one account that can access multiple hot spots, hotel Ethernet services and even dial-up locations (yes, these places do still exist). The service boasts access to more than 95,000 Wi-Fi hot spots around the world, including more than 500 airports, 20,000 hotels and more than 70,000 retail locations. The big spots for iPass include being able to access hot spot services at Starbucks and McDonald's locations.

The client software that comes with the service lets you know whether or not the Wi-Fi hot spots it sees are iPass-enabled, and comes with access to a hot spot finder Web site (or offline application if you want to go hot spot hunting). Service plans begin at $29.95 per month (for Wi-Fi-only access in North America), with 3G network access (North America only) and worldwide hot spot access costing more per month.

So is the service worth it? Over the month of travels to Las Vegas (twice) and New York, I was able to connect to several Wi-Fi hot spot locations without having to worry about paying for a day pass, which are overpriced. In locations where there weren't any iPass-enabled hot spots, the 3G EV-DO card was nice to have but slower than Wi-Fi, which doused my enthusiasm.