Boingo, Skype Team on Mobile Service

Internet telephony service will be aimed at business travelers.

Paul Kallender, IDG News Service

Boingo Wireless and Skype International are due to announce a mobile Internet telephony service this week, Boingo Wireless says.

The announcement is due to be made by David Hagan, president and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Boingo Wireless, and Niklas Zennstrom, Skype CEO and cofounder, on Tuesday, Boingo Wireless said in a statement.

The new service will be aimed at business travelers, Boingo Wireless says. More details were not available.

Boingo offers users access to networks of Wi-Fi hotspots through customized client software. More than 18,000 hot spots can be accessed and the service is available in 36 countries, according to the company's Web site. Customers pay a flat fee of $21.95 per month.

Luxembourg-based Skype makes peer-to-peer VoIP (voice over IP) software that lets users make voice calls to any other Skype user on the Internet for free. Calls to fixed-line phone and mobile phones in countries around the world are also possible and can be made at a fraction of the cost of conventional international phone calls.

The Skype user interface also provides text messaging and presence information, which indicates whether other Skype users are currently available for voice calls or text chat.

Skype said it had more than 43 million global users as of June 22 and that its user base was increasing by about 140,000 each day.