Brief: Boingo To Acquire Airport Hotspot Vendor

Wi-Fi hotspot aggregator Boingo Wireless said Monday it plans to acquire Concourse Communications, which operates wireless hotspots in a number of the busiest airports in the U.S.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

As an aggregator, Boingo doesn't create and manage hotspots but, rather, makes hotspots from numerous vendors available to its subscribers. It claims it offers to "tens of thousands" of hotspots. Concourse provides wireless access in a number of U.S. airports including Chicago's O'Hare, Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson, and New York's LaGuardia and JFK airports.

Terms of the acquisition and when the companies expect the transaction to close were not announced. In a statement, Boingo noted the widespread use of wireless networks in airports and that the acquisition will help it prepare for emerging new technologies.

Specifically, Boingo said that the new airport venues are a "platform for testing emerging dual-mode handset implementations and VoIP traffic management." It was referring to handsets expected to be released this year that can handle both cellular and wireless VoIP calls.