Boingo Mobile and Truphone = A Real Winner

Today I mashed up the recently updated Boingo Mobile client (which works on Nokia N and E series phones, the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet and Window Mobile devices) on my Nokia E71 Smartphone (North American Edition) from inside my hotel room.

The hotel is powered by iBahn, one of the Boingo roaming partners. I grabbed the E71 and booted up the Truphone client, identified Boingo's hotspot SSID as the one I wanted to latch onto. That fired up the Boingo Mobile client which works automatically. No entering usernames, passwords or anything.

Next I dialed a number, and voila, instant connectivity and the calls go through, with no muss no fuss. In many ways this is just like the way the T-Mobile@Home with UMA works.

I then made a Skype Out call on my MacBook Air to my Truphone number, and within less than a second the Nokia E71 was ringing.

So here's the use case for this one. You're an International traveler. You're working inside your hotel room. Roaming rates are such you switched SIM's to a local SIM or even a travel SIM like MaxRoam or SIM4Travel (from Truphone now.) Those help keep cost down when you're out and about, but when you have WiFi access on your phone because it has that capability this is the rate buster.

Now you're making calls for .01 cent a minute back to the USA or Canada from anywhere, or taking advantage of Truphone's cost saving rates to call anywhere else.

Now that's a Working Anywhere Approved Combination

(Full disclosure Truphone, Boingo and Nokia are all clients of mine).