Wayport Inc, based in Austin, Texas, has won a contract to become the sole provider of wireless Internet access in thousands of McDonald's restaurants, according to Wayport executives.
Under the agreement, Wayport plans to offer Wi-Fi service in as many as 3,000 McDonald's restaurants by the end of the year, charging US$2.95 for two hours of access.
Chief executive Dave Vucina, said Wayport will eventually offer wireless access in more than 13,000 McDonald's restaurants. Since last year, Wayport has offered wireless Internet connections in a test program at about 300 McDonald's restaurants. Vucina said Wayport competed against two other companies -- Cometa and Toshiba -- in a nine-month trial.
According to the research firm Yankee Group, there are about 12,000 Wi-Fi access points, or "hot spots," which allow users to connect to the Internet through laptop computers and other wireless-enabled devices. Most are in places such as airports, hotels and cafes.
"It's a question yet of whether people are going to pay to use Wi-Fi in a McDonald's," said Roberta Wiggins, an analyst with the Yankee Group.
More generally, she said, "The whole Wi-Fi market is still a big question."
But, Wiggins added, the contract is a victory for Wayport, which has Wi-Fi spots in 700 hotels and 12 airports, including in Dallas-Fort Worth and San Jose, California.
The company said its service would offer connection speeds comparable to the high-speed connections found at home. It will roll out the service in McDonald's in Chicago, New York and Seattle, adding other cities later this year.
Vucina declined to say how much the McDonald's contract is worth to Wayport, but said the company, which has 230 employees, expects to add as many as 90 more workers in the next six months.
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