Boingo Bringing Wi-Fi Under Ground and in the Air

According to the recently released Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2011-2016,  global mobile data traffic grew 2.3 times last year to 597 petabytes per month. The report estimates that the monthly global mobile data traffic will grow 78% annually over the period 2011 through 2016 to surpass 10 exabytes. Growth will be driven by Asia Pacific and Western Europe, which will account for more than half of global mobile traffic by 2016. The Middle East and Africa will record the highest CAGR of 104% during the term, and Asia Pacific will grow 21 times at a CAGR of 84%.

Boingo’s Financials
Wi-Fi services provider Boingo (Nasdaq:WIFI) saw Q1 revenues grow 15% over the year to $24.2 million. The company finally turned profitable this quarter and reported earnings of $0.05 per share compared with a loss of $0.03 per share reported a year ago.

For the current quarter, Boingo projected revenue to be $25 million-$26 million, with EPS of $0.05-$0.06. They expect to end the current year with revenues of $110.5 million-$114.5 million and EPS of $0.26-$0.31. The Street was looking for current quarter revenues of $27.5 million with EPS of $0.07 and the year’s revenues of $112.5 million with EPS of $0.29.

Boingo’s International Expansion
Boingo is working on capturing the growing international market and now operate more than 400,000 hotspots worldwide. Recently, they announced partnerships with five operators in the European markets of Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom, the Balkans and Malta. Through the partnership, Boingo added 1,500 new locations to their global network. The tie-ups will also help Boingo’s customers save on their international roaming charges as they can now directly access Boingo networks in these locations using their existing subscriptions.

In addition, Boingo is adding airlines to their service offerings. They recently tied up with Deutsche Telekom to enable access to in-flight Wi-Fi services on international flights. The service will be launched on select Lufthansa flights between Germany, the U.S., and Canada. The company will keep adding this service to more airlines.

Earlier this year, Boingo added hotspots in airports in Portugal and Thailand. They also announced a roaming agreement with Wire and Wireless to enable customers access to over 3,000 hotspots throughout Japan. Within the U.S., Boingo has begun managing and operating Wi-Fi services within the New York City subway system.

Boingo’s stock is trading at $10.24 with a market capitalization of $340 million. It touched a high of $13.25 in March 2011.