Google and Boingo to furnish malls with free Wi-Fi
Riding on a free hotspots project for New York City's subway stations, the two companies now say they're bringing free Wi-Fi to select shopping malls.
From urban to suburban, Google and Boingo continue to work on their nationwide free Wi-Fi project. The two companies announced today that free hotspots are coming to eight malls in the U.S, according to GigaOm.
It's not yet clear which malls will get the service, but Google and Boingo did say that at least four will be in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tampa, and Seattle.
This news comes on the heels of the Google and Boingo partnering to bring free Wi-Fi to several of New York City's subway stations as well as to 200 other above-ground hotspots throughout the city. New York is also the recipient of another Wi-Fi project brought by the city and Van Wagner Communications, which is installing free Wi-Fi kiosks in old city payphones.
Google Offers sponsors the Wi-Fi service while Boingo provides it. This means that when users sign-on to Wi-Fi in one of these hotspots, the first screen they'll see is the Web giant's daily deal service with online coupons for restaurants, shopping, and activities.
In addition to the malls and New York City, GigaOm reports that Google and Boingo are also working on bringing a discounted Wi-Fi service to 16 airports in the U.S., which would entail a half-off 24-hour pass on Boingo's airport networks.