Internet provider Boingo Wireless Inc (NASDAQ:WIFI) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) are teaming up this summer to provide free internet for the citizens of Manhattan. This free internet service will be offered at over 200 locations throughout the city including various MTA stations and at all of Boingo’s Hotzone Hotspot locations.
The free offer starts on June 25th and ends September 7th. Locations include MTA 8th Avenue and West 14th Street stations A, C, E, and L; 8th Avenue at C, E and West 23rd Street; and 1, 2, 3, F, M, L at 6th/7th Avenue and West 14th Street.
This promotion is just a warm-up for a strategic plan: Boingo plans on rolling out WiFi to 36 subway stations within a year and it includes those in Times Square, Columbus Square, and Rockefeller Center. Over the next five years, Boingo will offer WiFi at all 270 train stations.
Offering anything for free is probably one of the best promotional moves to make out there. It’s a great way to allow customers to test-drive a new product or service before allowing it on the market. It’s also a smart way to gauge customer reactions and to see if there are any tweaks that need to be made.
Boingo Wireless is a WiFi provider that offers internet service all across the world. They offer several different service plans for laptops and mobile devices in addition to over 500,000 hotspots world wide.
This free offer sounds like it’s going to be a huge hit with New Yorkers who, like everyone else in this world, will jump for this free offer and take full advantage of it. It’s nice to know that there are still free things in this world, even if they are for a limited time. I wonder if this means that Boingo will offer free WiFi in other cities like Los Angeles or Chicago in the near future.
