AT&T has announced a deal to acquire privately-held Wi-Fi hotspot operator Wayport for approximately $275 million in cash. Wayport operates thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots in locations like Starbucks and McDonalds restaurants, and already runs the back-end operations for AT&T’s own Wi-Fi Hot Spots. The acquisition will expand the number of Wi-Fi hotspots controlled by AT&T to almost 20,000 within the United States.
AT&T sees the move as a way to offer comprehensive communications and data capabilities to its customers, whether over broadband, 3G or EDGE mobile networking, or Wi-FI. It will be making he buy through its AT&T Operations subsidiary.
