iPass announced today that it is moving into the consumer market. The company, whose core business is providing wireless connectivity services to the enterprise market, announced the availability of iPassConnect mobility service for individuals. The service enables business people and consumers to buy a subscription-based service, which was previously reserved for enterprises, directly from iPass.
"We had consumers ask how they could get our service," said Piero DePaoli, director of global product marketing. "Looking through our statistics, WiFi hotspots are great but very destination oriented. 3G services are up and coming and work well in big cities, but once you leave the big city, you get downgraded to slower speeds. And if you travel internationally, the moment you leave the country you're paying big fees."
The iPassConnect mobility service offers subscribers unlimited access to more than 95,000 WiFi hotspots as well as 3G service across the U.S. for a fixed monthly fee.
iPass is taking a conservative approach to the consumer market, viewing it as a niche part of its business, but as DePaoli said: "Consumerization is a huge trend and could become very powerful for us."
For more about iPass' consumer offering:
- check out this release
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