* Nokia, Boingo team to bring affordable Wi-Fi to smart phones and tablets
Nokia has teamed with Boingo Wireless, a large service aggregator of Wi-Fi hot spots owned and operated by other companies, to simplify access and lower public Wi-Fi access fees for smart phone and Internet tablet users.
Users who download Boingo Mobile software code onto select Nokia devices, including the N95, N80 and other N-, S-, and E-Series devices, can pay a mere $7.95 per month (compared to $7.95 per day) for Wi-Fi access anywhere across the globe. The code can be downloaded at either the Nokia or Boingo Web site.
Users who are already Boingo subscribers currently pay a flat fee of $22 per month for access throughout North America and $39 per month for international access. They could still piggyback on that subscription with any smart phone, acknowledges Christian Gunning, a Boingo spokesman. “But they would have to navigate the walled garden of their mobile network operator” to figure out how to get online, he explains.
This often involves hunting and pecking to select the appropriate service set identifier (SSID), or Wi-Fi network name, from what can be a fairly long list of available networks in a public location, he says, which can be difficult and confusing.
By contrast, devices with the Boingo code loaded on them automatically identify Boingo hot spots and automatically authenticate users with their Boingo account.
The rub, of course, is that if you continue to carry both a laptop and a smart phone and want to make access from both as simple as possible, you’ll still need to retain your laptop subscription for $22 or $39 per month, plus an extra $7.95 flat-fee subscription for your Nokia device. However, if you are dumping your laptop in favor of a Nokia smart phone or tablet, you can reduce your monthly Wi-Fi subscription fee from $22 or $39 to about 8 bucks.
