Attention Blackberry Users: you can now quickly and immediately jump on and off over 100,000 hotspots around the world without the painful process of entering a user name and password. Boingo, a global provider of WiFi service has become a friend while I am on the road. The company provided me an account over a year ago and since then I have been able to enjoy rapid access to hotspots in hotels, around town and in airports all over the world. I consider this type of service a must have for anyone who wants to stay connected to broadband networks on the go. Yes I have EVDO and also 3G from AT&T via an iPhone but I have found most Boingo networks to be lightening fast and when you are uploading photos or downloading large attachments speed is an issue.

On a laptop, Boingo software alerts you to when you are in range of a hotspot you can gain access to automatically. You see this is an important feature as Boingo has relationships with many other hotspot vendors and there is no way you are going to memorize them all. On an iPhone – since there is no multitasking you must manually launch an application when you think you are in an area where a Boingo associated hotspot might be. If the software detects you can logon, you can press one button and quickly connect.

Obviously on the iPhone you run into many situations where you could have connected to Boingo had you known to run the software. Thanks to a simple concept called multitasking which every smartphone in the world allows except Apple, you can now run Boingo software on your favorite RIM device and be alerted automatically when you can jump on a WiFi network. Bravo. Oh and to be fair, the iPhone does allow multitasking – but only for Apple applications.

A few notes of interest:

• The Boingo Mobile application will initially be available for the BlackBerry Curve 8900, BlackBerry Curve 8320 and BlackBerry Bold smartphones. Boingo will announce support for additional BlackBerry smartphone models as they become available.
• Boingo, and its Concourse Communications Group subsidiary, operate wired and wireless networks at 55 airports worldwide, including 29 of the top 100 North American airports, as well as the WSDOT Ferries Division Wi-Fi network.

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