[Ronan Higgins of Caf�.com spearheads NetNearU's new roaming feature. -Mike O.]
By Glenn Fleishman Special to Wi-Fi Networking News Permanently archived item <http://wifinetnews.com/archives/003849.html> [1] Turnkey hotspot system operator allows its resellers to roam freely if they wish: NetNearU is one of several companies that provides turnkey hotspot equipment to single venues or resellers who then equip locations. The network has always allowed roaming with a single login across its entire network for existing users, but settles fees set by each network based on usage. Now, NetNearU is allowing resellers who want to offer free roaming to do so by signing a revised agreement. In an interview Wednesday with Wi-Fi Networking News, NetNearU's director of marketing David Comer said in this new model, "End users don't ever have to work about being charged." So far, five reseller networks have signed up, including Cafe.com in Los Angeles, CEDX in the New York metropolitan area, providers in Seattle, Chicago, and Israel. The initiative was spearheaded by Cafe.com's Ronan Higgins. Comer said, "He really came up with some good business points as to why--as he calls them--the middle-tier operators should provide free roaming to their users to go wherever they can." Craig Plunkett, CEDX's managing principal, said in an interview, "It gives us the same bilateral roaming that FatPort and Surf and Sip put together." Plunkett noted that previously, a roaming customer would take revenue from his network and settle it on the destination network. With the new agreement, "If that guy is a monthly customer of mine, I don't have to worry about paying Ronan [of Cafe.com] the entire revenue stream for the month." Currently, NetNearU resellers have to opt in or out of the agreement, and Comer said that the company is about to start actively marketing the idea to its wider groups of customers. For "each licensee or network operator, it's their own business to run," Comer said. "It really helps the smaller licensees to a certain extent to compete against Boingo, or to have some kind of added value or added attractiveness. Because it just makes you as a smaller guy appear larger," Comer said. NetNearU resells service on a per-session basis to Boingo, iPass, and GRIC. Comer noted that customers of a given network would be able to see which locations they could roam freely onto through a link on the login screen which NetNearU dynamically updates as revised contracts are received. URLs referenced: [1] <http://www.netnearu.com/>
