iPhone News Updated

Boingo today announced a $7.95-per-month Wi-Fi plan that lets Sony Ericsson users access more than 100,000 for-pay hotspots worldwide. An iPhone version is coming soon.

by Sascha Segan

BARCELONA – If $20 or $40 a month for a smart phone data plan feels like too much, how about $8? Today at Mobile World Congress, Wi-Fi aggregators Boingo announced a version of its Boingo Mobile client for Sony Ericsson's smart phones, but the real news for US readers is that Boingo will have an iPhone client out soon.

"We will be out as quickly as we can after the [iPhone] SDK is available" later this month, said Christian Gunning, Boingo's director of marketing. The company has already started writing the client, he said.

Boingo's system uses a proprietary software client to connect subscribers to more than 100,000 for-pay Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide. The "Boingo Mobile" plan costs only $7.95 per month, as long as you're using it on a handheld and not a laptop. Currently, the company has clients for many Nokia devices and Windows Mobile 5.

A Windows Mobile 6 client is already in the works, and the Sony Ericsson client announced today will appear in the second half of the year, Gunning said. That client won't matter much to US consumers, as Sony Ericsson's W960 and P1i smart phones are not widely available in the US.

But one of the big stories this year has been the breakout of the iPhone, iPod touch, and Mac platforms, Gunning said. Today, 19 percent of the people who try to connect to Boingo's Wi-Fi networks in airports are on Mac OS X, and 6 percent use the iPod touch or iPhone, he said.

"Our goal is to get [the iPhone client] out as quickly as possible, because it does represent a significant percentage of the devices touching our network," he said. "The Apple guys are really smart, and they have a beautiful phone."

Beyond the iPhone, Boingo Mobile has the most potential in Europe, where Wi-Fi phones are more popular, Gunning said.

"Nokia 100 percent sees the value that Wi-Fi roaming brings and got behind it in a big way early," he said. "Sony Ericsson, too, sees the value of it. But some of the US guys haven't quite found religion yet."