AT&T Inc. reported plans to acquire Wayport Inc. for $275 million, expanding the telecom giant’s Wi-Fi offering to thousands of locations and offering free Internet access to millions of its customers.

The acquisition expands AT&T’s Wi-Fi footprint to nearly 20,000 domestic hot spots and 80,000 global locations, the company announced. The sale also gives AT&T presence in some of the largest hotel chains, healthcare locations and McDonald’s restaurants.

Wayport locations include the Wyndham, Marriott Vacation Club and Four Seasons hotels and HealthSouth and Sun Healthcare locations. The company also provides Wi-Fi to rental car giant Hertz Corporation.

“We’re seeing exponential growth of Wi-Fi enabled devices — such as smartphones — combined with a continued dependency on 24/7, anytime, anywhere Internet access across business and consumer market segments,” John Stankey, AT&T CEO and president of operations, said in a statement.

Stankey said buying the privately-owned Wayport gives AT&T the ability to provide its customers more ways to stay in touch and to build more robust network management solutions for businesses.

“We’re bringing ready access to the nation’s leading Wi-Fi, wireless and IP networks — on a global scale,” he said.

By joining AT&T, Wayport will bring new and better solutions to its customers on a global scale, Dave Vucina, Wayport’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “AT&T’s ability to reach and service tens of millions of customers will greatly expand the value we currently bring to our customers.”

Wayport was founded in 1996 and has headquarters in Irving, Texas and Copenhagen, Denmark.

The acquisition also complements AT&T’s ability to deliver complete solutions for the business world as Wayport has experience in facilitating business applications and managing public access to the Internet through a single network.

AT&T is also projecting it will be able to offer more cost-effective and streamlined solutions to its business customers by providing more anytime, anywhere access to end-user applications. Businesses will also be able to reduce operating costs because the back-office infrastructure and end-user content applications will be managed by one company.

Telecommunication analyst Jeff Kagan said the deal is a good match for AT&T because the company is battling various companies in different segments of the industry. With the acquisition, AT&T can link their various services and offer a competitive bundle. For example, DSL customers could get access to AT&T’s network of Wi-Fi hot spots for handsets and laptops. AT&T’s wireless division offers free access to its Wi-Fi locations to users of its Apple Inc. iPhone.

“It makes sense for AT&T to have as many hot spots as they can,” he said. “It makes them more competitive.”

Kagan said the purchase also keeps Wayport’s national Wi-Fi network out of the hands of its competitors.

“If the idea is to give customers connectivity for their laptops or for their cellphones wherever they are, this is a big leap forward for AT&T,” he said.

AT&T officials said the transaction could be finalized by the end of the fourth quarter.

  Email Article   |   Print Article   |   Permalink  |