iPass, a provider of enterprise mobility services, today announced that it has partnered with Ireland's largest telecommunications supplier, eircom, which will be giving iPass customers access to over 1,000 Wi-Fi hotspots around Ireland through the iPass Mobile Office service. The partnership was formed in response to enterprise customer demand for coverage in and around Ireland's major cities and airports including Dublin, Cork and Limerick.
Likely to be the most popular location, says iPass, Dublin Airport currently ranks amongst the 10 busiest airports in Europe, welcoming well over 20 million passengers each year. Other locations around Ireland will include hotels, cafés, public hotspots and entertainment venues such as racecourses.
iPass Mobile Office unifies mobility management over any Internet connection to optimise mobile access as well as control the cost of mobility, particularly by significantly reducing 3G data roaming costs outside of the home country.
"eircom is committed to bringing the highest quality wireless Internet to its customers and partners. With iPass, people coming to Ireland will be able to conveniently log on and get high-speed, reliable Internet access no matter where they are, be it coffee shops, train stations, pubs or airports — especially Dublin Airport, the largest in Ireland," said Eamonn Condon, Head of Broadband Operations, eircom.
Before becoming fully integrated, the eircom hotspot network will complete the iPass Enterprise Ready certification process. This involves testing the hotspots for high availability as well as interoperability with policy and security tools, including a comprehensive range of virtual private networks, personal firewalls and anti-virus software packages.
"Demand for business grade connectivity throughout Ireland has grown substantially within our multinational customer base," commented Azadar Shah, Sales Director, UK & Ireland, iPass. "As the largest operator in Ireland, eircom is of clear value to iPass and we are thrilled to add them to the exhaustive list of world-class operators who have joined the iPass network."
iPass Mobile Office, with iPassConnect as its unified user interface, now also offers broad device support ranging from Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Apple Mac to Windows Mobile, Symbian smartphone and most recently, the iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry. This will enable organisations to standardise on this single service worldwide and eliminate expensive-to-manage patchwork of local, regional and individual solutions, further lowering IT costs. The iPass Wi-Fi footprint encompasses close to 140,000 business-ready broadband venues, including 555 airports and more than 137,000 Wi-Fi hotspots.