IPass, Finpro Roll Out Mobile Office

IPass, which sells enterprise mobility services, has announced that Finpro, a consultant network promoting Finnish companies, is rolling out iPass (News - Alert) Mobile Office to offices over 40 countries.

"Finpro came to us with a very clear need to take back control of the spiraling data roaming costs," said Ren Hendrikse, VP EMEA, iPass.

The company's products are being used to "help mobilize several hundred Finpro staff," according to iPass officials, who add that they're interested in iPass's global Wi-Fi network, which "encompasses almost 140,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, including nearly 60,000 in Europe alone, as well as 3G Mobile Broadband coverage, Ethernet and dial-up."

iPass Mobile Office is a service designed to unify mobility management over any Internet connection, "optimize mobile access, centrally manage mobile connections, and control the end-user organization's mobility expenses." Yes, it works with mobile device support as well. Yes, Finpro, it works with Nokia (News - Alert). Yes, rest of the world, it works with BlackBerry and iPhones.

Finpro officials said staffers using their 3G phones when abroad "has resulted in runaway costs." The main appeal of iPass, they say, is that it could "help the company to reduce these costs," as well as get "the same user experience regardless of location or network access type and irrespective of whether the connection is established from a laptop or handheld device."

"The financial repercussions of unmanaged data roaming charges forced us to review our mobility strategy," said Jarmo Jonninen, IT manager at Finpro.

Earlier this month TMC's Anil Sharma reported that Telenet, a provider of media and telecommunication services in Belgium, selected iPass software and services to underpin its new TelenetConnect offering:

"Thanks to the new service Telenet business customers would now be able to connect to the iPass virtual network, including the largest global Wi-Fi footprint available today spanning 85 countries, all for a single per user flat rate price."