Thursday, May 18, 2006

Boingo Launches Open Source WiFi Toolkit

Santa Monica-based Boingo Wireless has launched a new, open source initiative, launching a new, Wi-Fi toolkit that allows device manufacturers to design software to connect into its Wi-Fi network. Boingo said yesterday that its new open source initiative was released on the popular SourceForge open source development portal. The company's open source software handles connection into its Wi-Fi network, and authentication of users into its network of Wi-Fi hot spots. Companies supporting the firm's open source initiative include Microsoft, Broadcom, iBAHN, Kyocera Wireless, Accton, BridgePort Networks, and many others. The company said that it expects the move to lower the development costs for handset providers, and that the software is available for BREW, Linux, Windows Mobile 2003 and Windows Mobile 5. Portions of the software are licensed under the Lower GPL license and Apache open source licenses.