iPass Hotspot Network First To Hit 100,000

iPass continues to raise the bar with the single largest global Wi-Fi footprint.

Worldwide Wi-Fi usage is growing fast—nearly doubling year over year according to iPass statistics. To stay ahead of the curve, iPass has been aggressively expanding its global virtual network. In fact, iPass just recently announced that it has become the first to deliver 100,000 business-class Wi-Fi hotspots in a single network. The next largest network of Wi-Fi hotspots has only 84,200 live hotspots and only a handful of companies offer even 50,000 hotspots in a single service.

A major recent network addition in Denmark that pushed iPass past this milestone also made iPass the first to deliver 50,000 hotspots in Europe.

Business venues in the iPass network include:

• More than 550 airports, including 90 of the world's 100 busiest, as well as Aircell's Gogo in-flight Internet
• Nearly 23,000 hotels, such as Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott
• More than 70,000 retail locations, including Starbucks coffeehouses, McDonald's restaurants and FedEx Kinko's
• 668 convention centers across 27 countries

This milestone was reached six years after iPass delivered its first hotspots in 2002 and the pace of growth has been accelerating, as it took four years to reach 50,000 hotspots but only another two years to double that number. Previous key milestones include:

• March 2002: iPass offers first hotspots in its virtual network
• April 2003: iPass is first to surpass 1,000 active hotspots
• June 2004: iPass first to surpass 10,000 active hotspots
• May 2006: iPass first to deliver 50,000 hotspots in a single service
• May 2008: iPass first to deliver 100,000 hotspots in a single service

The iPass Mobile Broadband Index released earlier this year supports such an aggressive network expansion, demonstrating that Wi-Fi is the preferred way for businesspeople to connect today. In the second half of 2007, global Wi-Fi hotspot usage by business users increased 89 percent over the same timeframe in the previous year. On a region-by-region basis, North American Wi-Fi usage was up 61 percent, Latin American usage rose an incredible 133 percent and European usage skyrocketed 142 percent when compared to the second half of 2006.*

Supporting iPass' global Wi-Fi network, the company also offers widespread 3G, Ethernet, dial-up and satellite connectivity. So wherever iPass customers find themselves, they have unprecedented choice and flexibility in how they stay connected.

* iPass Mobile Broadband Index. http://www.ipass.com/pressroom/pressroom_wifi.html#regions. March 10, 2008.

Read the press release »