Austin (TX) - AT&T announced plans to acquire all assets and Wi-Fi hotspot provider Wayport for $275 million in cash. The company has been managing the back-end for many AT&T hotspots for some time. The acquisition, expected to close as early as the fourth quarter of 2008, will expand AT&T's Wi-Fi footprint to nearly 20,000 hotspots across the country, up from 17,000.
Wayport will extend AT&T's reach in the hotel, health care, education and retail sectors with key locations such as Wyndham, Marriott and Four Seasons hotels, HealthSouth and Sun Healthcare locations and McDonald's restaurants. The Wayport acquisition will bring the number of AT&T hotspots to nearly 80,000 locations globally.
"We're seeing exponential growth of Wi-Fi-enabled devices - such as smartphones - combined with a continued dependency on 24/7, anytime, anywhere Internet access across business and consumer market segments," said John Stankey, president and CEO of AT&T's operations unit, in a prepared statement.
AT&T spokeswoman Jenny Bridges said that Wayport will continue to manage AT&T’s Wi-Fi Wi-Fi infrastructure. She expects the combined Wi-Fi, wireless and IP converged network to appeal to big business, adding that AT&T expects additional revenue-generating opportunities with enterprise customers who will be offered customized location-based messaging, in addition to ads on Wi-Fi web pages. Also, enterprise customers will be able to run business applications on AT&T's Wi-Fi network, including inventory management, e- learning, point-of-sale applications and remote security monitoring.
Wayport will extend AT&T's reach in the hotel, health care, education and retail sectors with key locations such as Wyndham, Marriott and Four Seasons hotels, HealthSouth and Sun Healthcare locations and McDonald's restaurants. The Wayport acquisition will bring the number of AT&T hotspots to nearly 80,000 locations globally.
"We're seeing exponential growth of Wi-Fi-enabled devices - such as smartphones - combined with a continued dependency on 24/7, anytime, anywhere Internet access across business and consumer market segments," said John Stankey, president and CEO of AT&T's operations unit, in a prepared statement.
AT&T spokeswoman Jenny Bridges said that Wayport will continue to manage AT&T’s Wi-Fi Wi-Fi infrastructure. She expects the combined Wi-Fi, wireless and IP converged network to appeal to big business, adding that AT&T expects additional revenue-generating opportunities with enterprise customers who will be offered customized location-based messaging, in addition to ads on Wi-Fi web pages. Also, enterprise customers will be able to run business applications on AT&T's Wi-Fi network, including inventory management, e- learning, point-of-sale applications and remote security monitoring.