Founded in 1996, Wayport, Inc. (now AT&T Wi-Fi Services)[1] is a Wi-Fibroadbandinternet access provider, based in Austin, Texas.[2] Wayport provides hotspots in approximately 28,000 locations (as of October 2010) throughout the United States. Venues include hotels, airports, sports venues, retail chain stores, McDonald's restaurants and Starbucks locations. Wayport began a program in 2004, Wayport Wi-Fi World, which would work with telecommunications partners, creating unlimited-use Wi-Fi locations, paid monthly by the location itself. The telecom companies involved would be able to legally resell the services under their own brand.
On November 6, 2008, AT&T announced the acquisition and buyout of Wayport for $275 million in cash,[3][4] closing the acquisition on December 12, 2008.
On April 8, 2010, Swisscom Hospitality Services announced that it would acquire Wayport's EMEA division (Wayport Holdings A/S) which operated Wayport's hotspots in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.[5]
AT&T continues to own and operate the former Wayport assets in the United States. AT&T operated AT&T Wi-Fi services as a wholly owned subsidiary from December 2008 until mid-2012, at which time the subsidiary became part of AT&T proper.
As of May 2012, AT&T has on the order of 45,000 hotspots.
MobileStar Network was a wireless Internet service provider which first gained notability in deploying Wi-Fi Internet access points in Starbucks coffee shops, American Airlines Admiral Club locations across the United States and at Hilton Hotels. Founded by Mark Goode and Greg Jackson in 1998, MobileStar was the first wireless ISP to place a WiFi hotspot in an airport, a hotel, or a coffee shop. MobileStar's core value proposition was to provide wireless broadband connectivity for the business traveler in all the places s/he was likely to "sleep, eat, move, or meet." MobileStar's founder, Mark Goode, was the first to coin the now industry standard expression "hotspot," as a reference to a location equipped with an 802.11 wireless access point.
Linksys Holdings, Inc., is an American brand of data networking hardware products mainly sold to home users and small businesses. It was founded in 1988 by the couple Victor and Janie Tsao, both Taiwanese immigrants to the United States. Linksys products include Wi-Fi routers, mesh Wi-Fi systems, Wifi extenders, access points, network switches, and Wi-Fi networking. It is headquartered in Irvine, California.
A captive portal is a web page accessed with a web browser that is displayed to newly connected users of a Wi-Fi or wired network before they are granted broader access to network resources. Captive portals are commonly used to present a landing or log-in page which may require authentication, payment, acceptance of an end-user license agreement, acceptable use policy, survey completion, or other valid credentials that both the host and user agree to adhere by. Captive portals are used for a broad range of mobile and pedestrian broadband services – including cable and commercially provided Wi-Fi and home hotspots. A captive portal can also be used to provide access to enterprise or residential wired networks, such as apartment houses, hotel rooms, and business centers.
A hotspot is a physical location where people can obtain Internet access, typically using Wi-Fi technology, via a wireless local-area network (WLAN) using a router connected to an Internet service provider.
Alltel Wireless was a wireless service provider, primarily based in the United States. Before acquisitions by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, it served 34 states and had approximately 13 million subscribers. As a regulatory condition of the acquisition by Verizon, a small portion of Alltel was spun off and continued to operate under the same name in six states, mostly in rural areas. Following the merger, Alltel remained the ninth largest wireless telecommunications company in the United States, with approximately 800,000 customers. On January 22, 2013, AT&T announced they were acquiring what remained of Alltel from Atlantic Tele-Network for $780 million in cash.
Fon Wireless Ltd. is a for-profit company incorporated and registered in the United Kingdom that provides wireless services. Fon was founded in Madrid, Spain, in 2006, by Martín Varsavsky where it headquarters most of its operations.
Eastlink is the operating name of Bragg Communications Inc., a Canadian cable television and telecommunications company. The privately held company was founded in Nova Scotia in 1969 by the Bragg family, and has grown since through the amalgamation of several telecommunications companies.
Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, formerly known as Opryland Hotel, is a hotel and convention center located in Nashville, Tennessee. It is owned by Ryman Hospitality Properties, and operated by Marriott International.
United Online, Inc. was an independent public company formed by the 2001 merger of NetZero and Juno Online Services. It is currently a subsidiary of investment bank B. Riley Financial. The company's range of products and services has evolved significantly since its inception as a provider of dial-up Internet access. This has been aided by a series of acquisitions that have included Classmates Online (2004), MyPoints (2006), and FTD Group, Inc. (2008), the latter of which was spun off as its own company in 2013. United Online is headquartered in Woodland Hills, California, United States.
Alvarion Technologies is a global provider of autonomous Wi-Fi networks designed with self-organizing capabilities for carrier-grade Wi-Fi, enterprise connectivity, smart city planning, smart hospitality, connected campuses, and connected events.
Boingo Wireless is an American company that designs, builds and manages wireless networks. Its public and private networks include distributed antenna systems (DAS), small cells, macro towers and more than one million Wi-Fi hotspots around the world. The company operates networks for airports, transit stations, stadiums, military bases, hospitals and commercial properties. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with additional offices in London, New York City, and Oak Brook, Illinois. The company was listed on the Nasdaq until it was acquired by investment firm Digital Colony Management LLC in 2021.
iPrimus is an Australian telecommunications company and wholly owned subsidiary of Vocus Communications.
Towerstream Corporation is a Fixed Wireless Fiber Alternative company delivering high-speed Internet access to businesses. The company offers broadband services in 12 urban markets including New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay area, Miami, Seattle, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Las Vegas-Reno, and the greater Providence area, where the company is headquartered. In 2014, Towerstream launched its On-Net fixed-wireless service offering On-Net building tenants access to dedicated, symmetrical high-speed Internet connectivity, with a premier SLA, at market-setting prices. Founded in 1999 by Philip Urso and Jeffrey Thompson (eFortress), Towerstream held its first public offering in January 2007 and traded on the NASDAQ Capital Markets under symbol TWER. In November 2016 the stock had declined in price, was delisted from NASDAQ, and moved to the over-the-counter market.
RUCKUS Networks is a brand of wired and wireless networking equipment and software owned by CommScope. Ruckus offers Switches, Wi-Fi access points, CBRS access points, Controllers, Management systems, Cloud management, AAA/BYOD software, AI and ML analytics software, location software and IoT controller software products to mobile carriers, broadband service providers, and corporate enterprises. As a company, Ruckus invented and has patented wireless voice, video, and data technology, such as adaptive antenna arrays that extend signal range, increase data rates, and avoid interference, providing distribution of delay-sensitive content over standard 802.11 Wi-Fi.
Mood Media Corporation is an international in-store provider of music, digital signage, hold music, on-hold messaging, scent, integrated audio/video, and interactive mobile marketing products. It was founded in 2004, and is based in Austin, Texas. The company provides services to a variety of retailers and other business verticals such as restaurant, financial, healthcare, hospitality and QSR. Mood Media Corporation has expanded its product offerings through acquisitions of Somerset Entertainment in Canada, BIS Group in Europe, and Trusonic, AEI Music Network Inc., Muzak, DMX, Technomedia, and GoConvergence in the United States.
Brightroam is a deep discount international roaming mobile provider owned by iRoam Mobile Solutions a subsidiary of Sea Change Corporation. The company is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and provides global cellular communications to corporations and individuals at reduced costs associated with international roaming.
TruConnect, formally known as TruConnect Mobile, is an American mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that sells mobile hotspots and smartphones, 3G/4G LTE mobile data plans and prepaid cell phone talk & text plans on T-Mobile’s network. TruConnect was the first prepaid broadband provider in the U.S. to offer a pay-as-you-go, portable Wi-Fi service plans. The only Lifeline provider (ETC) headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. TruConnect uses either Sprint or T-Mobile's network depending on location.
BICS is active in digital communications, cloud communication services, mobility and IoT for telecom players, Virtual Network Operators, service providers, enterprise software providers and global enterprises. It is a subsidiary of Proximus Group. The company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium with sales offices and Service Operation Centers worldwide, including Dubai, Singapore, Bern, San Francisco and New York. BICS provides services across more than 200 countries, carries around 50% of the world's data roaming traffic and partners with more than 500 mobile operators. In 2021 BICS carried over 20.8 billion minutes of international traffic and generated revenues for 999 million Euros.
United Group is an alternative telecom provider in Southeast Europe that operates both telecommunications platforms and mass media outlets.
Radisson Hospitality, Inc. is an American multi-national hospitality company. It started as a division of Carlson Companies, which owned Radisson Hotels, Country Inns & Suites and other brands. In 1994, Carlson signed a franchise agreement with SAS International Hotels (SIH), after which SIH started to use the brand Radisson SAS in the Europe, Middle East and Africa markets. In 2005, Carlson acquired 25% of the shares of SIH, at that time known as Rezidor SAS Hospitality. In 2010, Rezidor Hotel Group became a subsidiary of Carlson. The enlarged hotel group adopted a new trading name, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, which was one of the top hotel corporations in 2013.
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