Wireless hot spot operator Boingo Wireless on Tuesday began offering dramatic discounts to users of Skype, an Internet telephony operator with tens of millions of users.

Boingo, founded by EarthLink creator Sky Dayton, makes available Wi-Fi technology to dispense high-speed Internet access. It’s currently used in about 18,000 locations. Skype is among the most popular providers of voice over Internet Protocol software for making inexpensive or free phone calls using the Internet.

Starting Tuesday, Skype users can now get unlimited access to Skype services within Boingo hot spots for $8 a month, or $3 for a two-hour connection. While use of the hot spots is restricted to Skype-only services, from Boingo’s perspective it’s a significant discount. Boingo typically charges $22 a month for unlimited use of its hot spots for any kind of Internet activity.

"We believe affordable broadband access is fundamental" to advance Internet telephony, said Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom.

The Skype-Boingo offering, for now, is only for devices using Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

"Partnering with Skype demonstrates the evolution of public-access Wi-Fi to include VoIP," said Boingo President David Hagan. "Voice has always been the killer app, but it’s moving away from traditional networks."

DUBLIN, IRELAND and WALTHAM, MA — (MARKET WIRE) — 04/20/2005 — Cicero Networks Ltd., a leading provider of Voice over Wireless IP solutions and Colubris Networks, a pioneer of intelligent, multiservice WLAN systems technology, today announced successful interoperability delivering seamless Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWi-Fi) Roaming across multiple access devices using the Cicero VoWi-Fi solution and Colubris’ Intelligent, Multiservice WLAN system.

Assuring high quality Wi-Fi voice service, from call initiation though to PSTN termination is delivered through a combination of Cicero’s unique QoS optimisation and multi-level intelligent call routing and the voice prioritisation and fast handover features of Colubris’ Intelligent, Multiservice WLAN system. More and also

April 19th - Swallow Hotels and Inns, in conjunction with Canova Wireless and Colubris Networks, will be deploying high speed wireless and wired Internet access at 75 locations in the U.K. More…

In studies at locations where public wireless access points are available, the findings have been a bit surprising. For example, at the Boston World Trade Center during a conference, a vendor configured software to watch the wireless networks and found that over 80 percent of the traffic they monitored was not encrypted. The message was clear, and so were the passwords being used by conference attendees to access their corporate email systems using unencrypted POP connections. Passive monitors would have had a field day at this conference. We recommend using secure protocols such as SSL when connecting on wireless public networks, and avoiding unsecured connections to email and other sensitive services.

Just as important, the use of an encryption key on your traveling virtual office wireless network is essential. While not truly safe in any location, presumably there is less risk of malicious eavesdropping at your home than while traveling to remote accomodations. Leaving your network traffic out in the open is an invitation to hackers to exploit your information leak without leaving the comfort and safety of their homes.

All major brand wireless routers allow the user to define a key on the router and on their wireless cards to encrypt their data, please use this feature. One that we have field tested is the U.S. Robotics 8022 - which combines wireless with a DSL router and a shared printer port, ideal for the traveling office.

Wi-Fi, or high-speed wireless Internet access, officially went active Monday in the terminal at Palm Beach International, although airport officials and businessmen who ventured to try out their wireless laptops while waiting to board a plane have been testing the service for a month.

 The speedy online service is free and available 24 hours a day in the waiting areas of the airport’s two concourses and in the passenger lounge, baggage-claim and ticketing areas of the main terminal, PBIA spokeswoman Lisa De La Rionda said. To access it, users simply open their laptops and power up the Internet browser, then they’re ready to surf the Web.

The Wi-Fi access at PBIA is part of a trend at airports nationwide. Some airports, such as Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, jumped on the wireless bandwagon early, offering it over the past year to two years. Others, such as Miami International Airport, don’t yet offer Wi-Fi in their terminals, although the Miami airport does offer it in a hotel on the airport property.

"We don’t advertise it but the high-tech crowd is very savvy and knows what’s going on," Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood spokesman Jim Reynolds said. "It was primarily driven by the tenants. They wanted access to the Internet for business purposes. But once you set it up, it’s a natural for the public."