Globe’s Innove Communications goes international

Innove Communications, the wholly-owned wireline subsidiary of Globe Telecom, has gone international as Boingo Wireless, the world’s leading wholesale network aggregator and operator of neutral-host Wi-Fi networks, made Innove its newest Wi-Fi roaming partner in Asia.

The roaming agreement means Boingo subscribers can use Innove’s service to access the Internet at more than 300 Wi-Fi hot spots across the Philippines that are part of the Wireless Internet Zone (WiZ) service from GlobeQuest, the corporate arm of Innove.

These locations include the Davao International Airport, Mactan International Airport, several hot spots in the Ayala Malls of Greenbelt and Glorietta in Makati, Ayala Entertainment Center in Cebu, Alabang Town Center, Starbucks, Seattle’s Best Coffee, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, the Cebu City Sports Club, The Promenade and Greenhills Theatre Mall, Waterfront Hotel in Cebu, Marco Polo Hotel in Davao, Holiday Inn in Clark and all Super Ferry terminals, among others.

"This agreement is a critical step in our goal to provide a ubiquitous network in the leading business and travel hubs of Asia," according to Allen Pan, Boingo director of network strategy for Asia-Pacific.

Pan added that the Philippines is aggressively developing next-generation wired and wireless network services to support its business growth with Innove leading this wave, which means that Boingo users will have first access to advanced services as they become available.

Meanwhile, Innove enterprise business group head Jesus Romero noted that with the Boingo relationship, Innove continues to pursue the strategy of opening its WiZ network to international customers and making high-speed wireless network access a critical part of their complete network services offering.

"This enables foreign business people to have access while they travel anywhere in the Philippines," Romero said. "Boingo’s broad reach and worldwide coverage makes it the right partner to bring us the traffic and resources we need to continue to transform our network."

Innove is a member of the Fixed Mobile Convergence Alliance (FMCA) and is developing services that allow users to run corporate Internet and Intranet applications wirelessly with the same performance and security as a wired office network.

Company officials said Boingo gives business travelers the best choice of Wi-Fi hot spots by combining over 60,000 locations from more than 140 leading Wi-Fi operators into one worldwide network. Boingo users can connect to any of these locations with a single Boingo account using Boingo’s free Wi-Fi client software, which combines more than 660 network names into one Boingo Wireless network to simplify identifying and connecting to commercial Wi-Fi networks.

The program provides partners with access to this network, customized client software, and a full suite of back-office billing, roaming, mediation and clearinghouse services to allow them to offer their own Wi-Fi service quickly and cost effectively. To date, the company has announced platform services partnerships with BT Infonet, EarthLink, Fiberlink, Helio LLC, Nextel Communications, Verizon Business, and Telecom Italia.