Wayport Inc. will wholesale the high-speed wireless network it is building at 8,000 McDonald's restaurants to other telecommunications and technology providers for a flat monthly fee, the Austin-based company is expected to announce today.
The move is designed to get more people to use Wi-Fi and ease the cost of building hot spots where people can access the broadband service, two of the nascent technology's biggest challenges. It is part of a broader strategy dubbed Wayport's Wi-Fi World that the company shared with reporters on Monday.
Wayport executives said the company wants telecom partners to pay $32 a month for each Wi-Fi retail location for unlimited use. Once the 8,000-store McDonald's network is complete, that would total $256,000 a month. Phone companies and others that take the offer could turn around and sell access to the network to consumers under their own brand for whatever price they wanted, said Dave Vucina, Wayport's chief executive.
The company has signed one partner so far and is targeting the nation's four large local-phone companies, cable providers and wireless-phone companies.
Mr. Vucina said the novel approach assures that Wayport won't buckle under the cost of installing hot spots. The company will also receive an undisclosed per-store payment from McDonald's Corp.
"This isn't about having to install 3,000 or 4,000 stores, hoping that we get X amount of connections, holding on for our dear lives," Mr. Vucina said.
Other Wi-Fi providers have collapsed under similar strains. Richardson-based MobileStar Network went bankrupt while it was installing Wi-Fi in hundreds of Starbucks in 2001. T-Mobile USA eventually bought that network and still provides service in the coffee chain.
Mr. Vucina said the Wi-Fi World roaming arrangement won't initially cover networks that Wayport has installed in hotels and airports, but the company plans to add them later.
WayPort started in 1996 by putting wired high-speed Internet connections in hotel rooms. It slowly moved into wireless by adding Wi-Fi to hotel lobbies and airports. On Monday, the private company said it expects revenue to total $35 million to $40 million this year and is shooting for $75 million to $100 million next year.
Wayport Inc.
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