Two leading US wireless Internet access providers signed a roaming agreement on Tuesday that will effectively create the largest Wi-Fi network in North America and is expected to accelerate the adoption of Wi-Fi technology by companies.

T-Mobileicon USA, the US mobile phone network operator, and iPass, a California-based company that provides secure remote VPN (Virtual Private Network) services to companies, announced an agreement that will enable employees to access the T-Mobileicon HotSpot network through the iPass virtual network.

The deal, T-Mobileicon's first Wi-Fi inbound roaming agreement, could mark a watershed in encouraging broader-based adoption among companies of Wi-Fi for their increasingly mobile workforces.

T-Mobile currently operates the largest public Wi-Fi network in the US with 3,900 Wi-Fi hotspots mostly at airports, book shops and Starbucks coffeehouses. Meanwhile, the iPass Global Broadband Roaming (GBR) network, is the largest virtual network in the world and spans 24 countries with nearly 3,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in 16 countries as well as over 1,200 fixed Ethernet-enabled venues around the world.

Wi-Fi - also known at 802.11b technology - has been quickly adopted by home users eager to network their home PCs while avoiding the problems associated with fixed wire cabling. Companies however, have been slower to adopt Wi-Fi networking partly because of security concerns.

Companies have also been waiting for the ability to obtain a single service with broad coverage, enhanced reliability and enterprise quality security before signing up for Wi-Fi services.

T-Mobile's internal research shows that 88 percent of T-Mobile HotSpot network usage is for business purposes and has said it will deploy the 802.1x security standard across its entire Wi-Fi network shortly.

"This new distribution agreement enables corporations to easily connect to our network with the iPassConnect service interface they already use today," said Joe Sims, vice president and general manager of T-Mobile HotSpot. "This agreement with iPass continues to underscore our strategy of focusing on the enterprise market and meeting the needs of enterprise customers."

"T-Mobile has been very aggressive in building and promoting what is now North America's largest single commercial Wi-Fi network," said John Yunker of Pyramid Research. "By including locations such as airports and Kinko's, the T-Mobile thinking is right in-line with the iPass business-oriented venue approach to building its virtual Wi-Fi network for the enterprise."

"The Wi-Fi vision of both iPass and T-Mobile are in synch," said Ken Denman, chairman and CEO of iPass. "Both companies believe the addition of the T-Mobile HotSpot network to the iPass global Wi-Fi network of business-oriented venues represents a major step closer to the tipping point in the adoption of Wi-Fi by the enterprise."

By Paul Taylor for ft.com in New York / December 16 2003 21:43

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