Founded in 1996, Wayport, Inc. (now AT&T Wi-Fi Services) is a

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio w ...

broadband In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...

access provider, based in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. Wayport provides

hotspot Hotspot, Hot Spot or Hot spot may refer to: Places * Hot Spot, Kentucky, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Hot Spot (comics), a name for the DC Comics character Isaiah Crockett * Hot Spot (Tra ...

s in approximately 28,000 locations (as of October 2010) throughout the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. Venues include hotels, airports, sports venues, retail chain stores,

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold ...

restaurants and

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 ...

locations. Wayport began a program in 2004, Wayport Wi-Fi World, which would work with

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than tha ...

partners, creating unlimited-use Wi-Fi locations, paid monthly by the location itself. The telecom companies involved would be able to legally resell the services under their own brand. On November 6, 2008,

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

announced the acquisition and buyout of Wayport for $275 million in cash, closing the acquisition on December 12, 2008. On April 8, 2010, Swisscom Hospitality Services announced that it would acquire Wayport's EMEA division (Wayport Holdings A/S) which operated Wayport's hotspots in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. AT&T continues to own and operate the former Wayport assets in the United States. AT&T operated AT&T Wi-Fi services as a wholly owned subsidiary from December 2008 until mid-2012, at which time the subsidiary became part of AT&T proper. As of May 2012, AT&T has on the order of 45,000 hotspots.

Notes

External links

AT&T Wi-Fi Area Network services
*{{official website, https://web.archive.org/*/http://www.wayport.net Wi-Fi providers Companies based in Austin, Texas

See also

Notes

External links