Sprint, SBC Agree to Give Wi-Fi Customers Access to Each Other's Networks
Posted on: Sunday, 29 August 2004, 06:00 CDT
Aug. 28--Sprint and SBC Communications announced a roaming agreement Friday that allows each company's wireless fidelity Internet customers access to the other's network.
This is the second agreement Sprint has reached with a major telecom company; the first was with AT&T Wireless. Sprint and SBC didn't disclose terms.
The agreement links Sprint's 2,600 wi-fi "hot spots" with SBC's FreedomLink wi-fi network, which has 2,300 hot spots nationwide. The agreement covers hot spots at hotels, airports, convention centers, shopping malls and UPS Store and MailBoxes Etc. locations.
Wi-fi allows users access to the Internet and corporate networks and to check e-mail using wireless-enabled laptop computers and personal digital assistants. A wi-fi network consists of a number of hot spots, or access points, places from which Internet access is broadcast over radio frequencies.
"We plan to sign more agreements like this with other companies," Michael Coe, an SBC spokesman, said. "This is a great way to get more customers onto our network."
Using their existing user IDs and passwords, consumers can roam on each company's network and will be charged according to current billing agreements.
SBC and Sprint, and other telecom companies, have been signing deals to broaden their wi-fi reaches. Roaming agreements have become popular between telecom providers because they widen networks without adding infrastructure costs.
Sprint has said it plans to seek more agreements in hope of reaching 10,000 hot spots by year's end, more than triple its current number.
"We plan to continue to expand the number of wi-fi hot spots in the Sprint portfolio not by building, but by partnering with others," said Roxie Ramirez, a Sprint spokeswoman.
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