The UK incumbent carrier said the service offers access in over 150 countries, always with the same user ID and password, with over 19,000 hotspots around the globe, growing to over 30,000 next year. It includes airborne access, since Infonet earlier this year partnered with the Connexion By Boeing unit of The Boeing Co for in-flight connectivity on airlines including Lufthansa, Japan Airlines, and SAS.
This is in reality a relaunch. MobileXpress was a WiFi-focused Infonet product prior to the acquisition of the El Segundo, California-based network operator by BT in November last year. It has now been integrated into the BT portfolio and integrated with BT’s own DSL-based remote access service for home workers.
The offering competes in terms of remote access for businesses with the Extended Workplace offering from Sprint, which offers similar fixed, mobile, and wireless connectivity with a single user interface and monthly billing. The client seeks out the most appropriate form of connectivity available, prioritizing a WiFi connection over GPRS or 1xRTT, for instance, and the user has no concerns about paying a hotspot operator locally because settlement is handled by the global carrier as part of the service, as is security, and connectivity back to corporate networks is delivered over a VPN.
