When a traveler opened a laptop at an airport gate, the name on the screen was often Boingo. The company ran paid Wi-Fi in many of the busiest airports in the United States and resold access to hotspots around the world. By 2011 smartphones were changing the business. Boingo was also building cellular antenna systems inside airports and stadiums, so phone carriers could serve the crowds there.

After EarthLink, One Login

Sky Dayton had founded the internet provider EarthLink. He started Boingo in 2001, when public Wi-Fi was new and scattered. His bet was that one account could work across thousands of hotspots, the way a phone worked across cell towers. Boingo won long contracts to run the networks in major airports. Roaming deals with other hotspot operators let its customers log in far beyond its own locations.

When Wi-Fi Went Free

Boingo priced its IPO at $13.50 a share in May 2011. Then free Wi-Fi spread through airports and coffee shops. The company leaned into building wireless infrastructure for venues, carriers and military bases. Its long airport contracts and base networks kept revenue steady as consumer Wi-Fi fees faded. In 2021 an investment group led by Digital Colony bought Boingo and took it private.

Cover: Kites of Fukuroi and Distant View of Akiba in Totomi Province (Enshu Akiba enkei Fukuroi tako), from the series "One Hundred Famous Views in the Various Provinces (Shokoku meisho hyakkei)", Utagawa Hiroshige II (Shigenobu). Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for kites in the sky (signals in the air).